Colorectal surgeon was a pioneer in field
Montreal lost one of its longest serving and most accomplished doctors Wednesday, when Philip Gordon, 75, died of pancreatic cancer.
Gordon was a colorectal surgeon who worked for 40 years at the Jewish General Hospital, many of them as the head of the department.
Born in Saskatoon, Gordon was the first doctor in this country to be specifically trained to perform colorectal surgery and he was instrumental in establishing the discipline as a specialty apart from general surgery.
“General surgeons used to do colorectal surgery and the general surgeons didn’t really want to give it up,” said Carol-Ann Vasilevsky, a longtime friend and colleague who took over from Gordon as head of the department in 2012. “Eventually, they saw that he was accomplishing a major feat by doing it differently and they gave it up and we became our own division.”
Gordon was internationally recognized as the first and only Canadian to serve as president of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS). He was also the founding president of the Canadian Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons in 1982.
Gordon wrote the book on colorectal surgery in Canada, having authored numerous textbooks on the subject, many of which are still being used as references today. As a researcher, he has more than 140 publications to his name. Among his notable accomplishments was his work with a team of genetics researchers to identify the first Ashkenazi Jewish founder mutation in Lynch syndrome, a form of colorectal cancer.
After being diagnosed with cancer, Gordon continued to advocate for patients by appealing to doctors to work better to empathize with their patients. In an article published in the medical journal Diseases of the Colon and Rectum, Gordon documents his very personal experience as a patient. Gordon also recounted his experience in an interview with the Montreal Gazette.
On the Paperman’s website where Gordon’s obituary was posted, several former patients had kind words for the doctor.
“In the early ’90s Phil gave my grandfather, whose cancer was caught much, much too late, another couple of years,” wrote Ari Gross. “I don’t think I ever truly thanked him for that (although I know my parents certainly did). Years later, as an adult, when I finally met Phil, I was amazed by his jovial personality. It’s incredible and inspiring to have known someone who was such a focused, serious lifesaver while also being (to my mind) a lovable goof who lived to laugh.”
A funeral service for Gordon will be held at noon Friday at Paperman and Sons (3888 Jean-Talon St. W.).