Dr. Behman Minoo Daver
29th June 1939 - 25th August 2015
Dr. Daver was one of the very early formally trained plastic surgeons in this country
under the tutelage of N.H. Antia at the JJ Group of Hospitals and Grant Medical College
in Bombay now Mumbai.[1] He was also most probably the first one in Bombay University to pass with a distinction.[2]
He followed this with a stint in the UK where he trained at Bristol, one of his contemporaries
fondly referred to him as the ‘last Englishman’ in India. He then managed to get the
Millard Cleft Fellowship in Miami, probably the first Indian to do so. During dinner
one day, he regaled us with a deadpan face about his interview with Millard. He was
asked about sports. Apparently, Millard insisted that he would only take fellows if
they were active sportsmen. Dr. Daver replied that he was a keen swimmer and Millard
invited him home for a swim in the ocean the next day. He was greeted by a butler
and told to strip to his swimming trunks and join the family on the beach. Out on
the beach, Millard made him ride water skis from which he promptly fell down. Millard
then said ‘I gotta show you.’ Dr. Daver was asked to drive the sped boat, and the
great Millard was riding the skis behind. Not knowing how to manage the speed he promptly
managed to put Millard in the water. The fellow sitting next to him muttered ‘boy
are you in trouble now’, however the great man did not take offence at all and finally
offered the fellowship.
After his stint abroad, he came back to Mumbai and joined the JJ Group of Hospitals
again, first as a pool officer and subsequently as Hon. Associate Professor. He went
on to become the senior most Hon. Professor in the JJ Group of Hospitals at the end
of his career.
He put all his knowledge and skill to very good use both in public service as well
as his private practice for four decades and was a much-loved teacher and kind examiner
(the author was passed by him in 1986, which explains the epithet!). He did very interesting
work on Leprosy with Dr. NH Antia as also a very large series of hypospadias repair
running into hundreds with the technique of J.C. van Der Mullen; in fact, Dr. Wadhwa
wrote his M.Ch. thesis for Bombay University based on this work, the fistula rate
was negligible. He was also an early proponent of Potter's technique in the cleft
rhinoplasty, and several people learned it from him including me [Figure 1]. Finally, his work with palate lengthening leaving the diamond defect behind the
hard-soft junction in the nasal layer was pioneering at the time with very low fistula
incidence.
Figure 1: Dr. Daver at Tavada Cleft Camp with author and Dr. Anil Deshpande
Besides his fine reconstructive work, he was among the early few to establish an aesthetic
surgery practice. He soon earned a reputed clientele base and dozens of plastic surgeons
went up to him as he was ever willing to teach and demonstrates the art and science.
His annual Rhinoplasty course was always very well attended. At a time when knowledge
of aesthetic surgery was jealously guarded, he was willing to share it freely.
Prof. Daver published several articles and authored books, which are highly cited.
Prominent among them includes reconstruction of nasal defects in Clinics in Plastic
Surgery, a book on surgical management of deformities of leprosy, handbook of plastic
surgery and several in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and British Journal of Plastic
Surgery. At the time when the contribution to scientific publications in the country
was meagre, Dr. Daver's publications received 146 citations. He was the only Indian
clinician to join and contribute to the WHO - international collaborative research
on craniofacial anomalies and this author helped him conduct a nationwide survey on
clefts with eight colleagues from eight centres. Dr. K. Sridhar from Chennai then
extended it to do a full state survey - a landmark achievement, but it started with
that quest of his and a desire to show India was up there and could be on par at the
WHO.
He was also a very devoted member of the Association of Plastic Surgeons of India
(APSI), serving in the executive as a member, treasurer, president and trustee [Figure 2]. He also became the Secretary General of the Asian Pacific section of the International
Confederation of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, perhaps the first
Indian to do so [Figures 3a and b].
Figure 2: Addressing 19th APSICON 1986, Mumbai
Figure 3: (a and b) At IPRAS, APC Congress 2005 in Mumbai
Dr. Daver was a fine surgeon, a great teacher, a leader in APSI, exemplary orator
and last but not the least a devoted husband and father. This tribute as Icon of the
Issue from the Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery is richly deserved.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
