VOLUME 36, ISSUE 2
Miles Day, M.D., DABA, FIPP, DABIPP
Traweek-Racz Endowed Professor in Pain Research
Medical Director – The Pain Center at Grace Clinic
Pain Medicine Fellowship Director
Texas Tech University HSC
Lubbock, TX
On the Shoulders of Giants: Legends of Texas Anesthesiology
Phulchand Prithvi Raj, M.D.
A few weeks before Raj’s passing, he called to update me on his health condition. I asked him if there were other treatments that could prolong his life and, if so, why did he not pursue them. Without hesitation he said, “Everything that I have ever wanted to accomplish in my life, I have already accomplished.” And on February 27, 2016, the second of my mentors passed away at the age of 84. Those of us in the anesthesiology and pain world lost a friend, a colleague, a mentor, an innovator and an overall a true gentleman. But who was this man that we lovingly call “Raj”?
Phulchand Prithvi Raj was born on September 13, 1931, in Bagri Sajjanpur, Princely State of Jaipur of British India. He completed high school at St. Joseph’s Boys High School, Bangalore, Karnataka, India with the hope of one day becoming an orthopedic surgeon. In 1958, at the age of 26, he graduated from Mysore Medical College and journeyed to Ashton at Lyne, Manchester, England to be a house officer. Four years later he completed his orthopedic surgery training and became a registrar. Deciding to embark on his career in the United States, he entered a rotating internship at St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut. Unfortunately, his English orthopedic surgery training was not recognized in the United States and, if he wanted to pursue this, he would have to do another residency in orthopedic surgery. In 1963, he had two choices: start a residency in orthopedics at New York University or a residency in anesthesiology at the University of Texas-Southwestern (UTSW) in Dallas. Fortunately for us, he chose anesthesiology. Over the next six years he completed his anesthesiology residency in Dallas, then did a year of specialization in Norway, and obtained the Fellow of the Faculty of Anesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons in Birmingham, United Kingdom. He moved back to Dallas in 1969 where he began his career as an Assistant Professor at UTSW.
Over the next 35 years Raj left his impact on many institutions. After five years at UTSW, he traveled to Los Angeles where he was named the Director of Anesthesia at Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1974 to 1976. He left UCLA in 1976 and returned to Dallas to start the Pain Relief Center Texas Neurological Institute which, at that time, was the fourth pain clinic in the United States. He left Dallas in 1979 and joined the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Cincinnati to start a new pain center. There, he started a one-year fellowship and chaired the program from 1979 to 1986. In 1986, he started the pain fellowship program at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, and then moved to Atlanta in 1991 in order to organize a pain clinic as a satellite of the Medical College of Georgia. Subsequently, he returned to UCLA from 1994 to 1996 to develop a pain fellowship program. Finally, in 1996 he joined Dr. Gabor Racz at Texas Tech University HSC as Director of the International Pain Institute and Co-Director of the Pain Institute where he remained from 1996 to 2003. Fortunately for me, I was an anesthesiology resident at Texas Tech when he arrived. Following his retirement in 2003 at 72 years of age, he eventually returned to Cincinnati, which was home for him until
Dr. Prithvi Raj as a medical student
Dr. Prithvi Raj and his wife Susan (on the ends) with Dr. Gabor Racz and his wife Enid (in the middle).
Raj was a prolific writer and educator. His first book “Practical Management of Pain” and future editions were a must have and served as “the textbook” for many pain management fellowship programs. I used to joke that Raj was his own textbook. He could give an impromptu 30-minute talk on almost any pain medicine topic. He authored hundreds of papers and book chapters over his career. As a founding father and past president of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA), the Texas Pain Society (TPS) and the World Institute of Pain (WIP), Raj touched the lives of thousands of current and future pain medicine physicians across the globe.
Raj was the recipient of numerous awards and honors from societies such as ASRA (Gaston Labat Award 1990, John Bonica Award 2009, Founding Father’s Medal 2007), the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (Lifetime Achievement Award 2003, Distinguished Award and Lecture 2014, 2016), and the European Society of Regional Anesthesia (Carl Koller Award 2000). Despite all of these professional accolades, Raj remained one of the humblest people I have ever met. He never turned away a question from an inquiring mind. In my case, I had many. He would not always give me the answer outright, but instead would probe what I knew and helped me work towards the answer. My current fellows can thank Raj for this…
Raj was a family man. While he was an orthopedic surgery registrar in Darlington, England, he met and married Susan Martin in 1963. They had 3 children and numerous grandchildren. Susan accompanied him wherever he travelled and I have many fond memories of our interactions at various meetings and social gatherings. A Christmas party in 1997 at their house in Lubbock was the setting of the marriage proposal to my future wife Audra and, because of this, they hold a very special place in our hearts. Susan and Raj also had several dogs over the years, but their last ones were Scottish Terriers named Scotty 1 and Scotty 2. I could never look at the dogs and not think of the “scotty dog” seen on x-ray during a lumbar facet injection.
On a personal note, some of the most important memories of Raj were during my pain medicine fellowship at Texas Tech. I had the privilege of being trained simultaneously by him and Gabor Racz. Most fellows would feel fortunate to be trained by either one of them, but I got both. Teaching sessions, called “Professor Rounds,” were always fun. We fellows would present cases for Drs. Racz and Raj to discuss. The discussions were always lively between these two and reminded me of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer duking it out in a Grand Slam tennis tournament. I was fortunate to join Drs. Raj and Racz as faculty right out of my fellowship. I had never thought of pursuing an academic career, but Raj’s enthusiasm for teaching was downright infectious. He was instrumental in my early academic career and urged me to publish as much as I could, get involved with societies, and to teach. I am eternally grateful for this.
Dr. Raj surrounded by family at Christmas in 2005
Another Raj protege feels the same as I do. Aaron Calodney, M.D, said Raj was “not only a brilliant, physician, researcher, and teacher, but a wonderful, caring, and compassionate human being who taught us how to be better people.” I can vouch that this opinion is shared by all who had the opportunity to meet Raj.
In late 2016, many of us were able to gather in Cincinnati with Raj’s family to celebrate his life. Stories were told, toasts were made, pictures were shared, but, to my memory, no tears were shed. If each of us in our lives could emulate just a small part of his life, I believe Raj would be proud. I can see him smiling now!
References:
- Manchikanti L. In Memoriam of an Eminent Pain Physician: Phulchand Prithvi Raj. Pain Physician 2016;19:E515-E530.
- Raj P, Hill C, Racz G, et al. The Story of the Texas Pain Society: Formation and Function of a Regional Pain Society. Pain Practice 2012;12:57-65.
- Rauck R. Dr P. Prithvi Raj: A True Founding Father. Reg Anesth Pain Med 2016;41:427-429.
