Dr. DeSa Souza came from a family of distinguished Goan Medical professionals. Her father Dr. Herculano DeSa, was one of the pioneers of Obstetrics and Gynecology in his time.
After graduating from the GS Medical College in 1935 with medals in Obstetrics and Gynecology, she naturally opted for Obstetrics and Gynecology and had the privilege of working under her father. She did her fellowship in Edinborough in 1937 and had to return to India due to the World War, without obtaining the coveted M.R.C.OG. After getting her M.D. from the Bombay University in 1940, she was selected for the teaching post in Grant Medical College and Nawrosji Wadia Maternity Hospital. She rose to be the professor and head of the department in Grant Medical College.
She was a distinguished member of many medical organizations and had the honor of being President of the Association of Medical Women of India, Bombay Obstetrics and Gynecology Society, St. Luke’s Medical Guild among many others. She was widely travelled both in India and abroad and was known equally for her vast professional experience and personal charm. She loved to attend all conferences whenever she could, so as to update her knowledge in her subject.
She was a teacher par excellence! She had a practical way of teaching by demonstrating the movements of the foetus using a dummy on her own abdomen. She trained many of her house surgeons in her private hospital and helped them get through their M.D. examinations. She always had an encouraging word for juniors and always made it a point to go out of her way to acknowledge and compliment her students, residents and assistants for any good work that they had done. Her experience in organizational matters, her love for the members of her profession, and her large heartedness to help colleagues was remarkable.
Amongst her many contributions in Obstetrics and Gynecology I would remember three very clearly. She had developed an expertise in X-ray pelvimetry, which allowed her to judge the adequacy of the female pelvis to allow the foetus to pass through for a normal delivery. This helped her to avoid many unnecessary Cesarean sections. She also contributed greatly with her postural treatment of breach presentations in the antenatal period, which successfully converted breach presentations into vertex and led to a normal delivery for scores of women. To my mind one of her greatest contributions was “trial labour” where she would sit by the patient and monitor the patient for hours on end to allow a normal delivery rather than rush for a Cesarean section. Though this always required long & careful observation of the patient she was firmly convinced that “the Art of Obstetrics was to enable the woman, as far as possible, to deliver normally”. That was her forte!
She was more a clinician rather than an academician. She used all her clinical senses and acumen for diagnosis and treatment, without relying on sophisticated gadgetry like foetal monitors, ultrasound, CT scan and MRI, which were not readily available in her time.
“Conscience is elastic” she would say and one can stretch ones conscience to suit whatever one would like to do. But her motto was never to stretch her conscience ever. Maintaining the rules of ethics and respect for life, and being truly imbibed with moral values, she would shun any sterilizations, abortions, IVF’s, surrogacy, which went completely against her conscience.
Despite her heavy schedule in the Government hospitals as well as running her own private hospital, she always found time to look after the family and home. How she managed all three one will never know. She was not only a wonderful professional but also a truly wonderful mother. I will never forget what it cost her to let me change my registration from Obstetrics and Gynecology which she wanted so much for me to do so as to continue her practice and her hospital. But when I said that I could not do it, she allowed me to change over to surgery although it broke her heart, because it was in my interest to do what I really wanted to do. That was her generosity and charity of heart. As a humanitarian, few people will know that in spite of her heavy schedule, she found time to do a weekly free clinic at the Oznam Centre in a Church. She not only gave free treatment but also supplied the patients with the drugs they needed. Her professional fees were always very modest and often in fact far too modest even for her anaesthetist. But she never changed, because money was never her God!
We remember her on her centenary birth celebration with much love and respect. She was truly a woman of substance. We salute her memory and give her the tribute she deserves by emulating her professionalism & values.
