Kapoor ‘a rock star’ in medical circles
He broadened use of minimally invasive surgery in operating rooms
Dr. Anil Kapoor is being remembered as “a gifted surgeon” who was a “rock star” in the medical profession.
The Burlington resident — who died Feb. 28 at age 58 of colon cancer — helped expand the use of minimally invasive surgery (laparoscopic) in the operating room during a twodecade long career at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Laparoscopic surgery uses a camera and is also known as keyhole surgery.
The urologist and head of transplants at St. Joseph’s conducted the first laparoscopic renal (kidney) donor transplant in Hamilton in 2001, involving two brothers from Waterloo. He was also involved with the
first laparoscopic renal aneurysm repair in North America in 2004.
Kapoor, with colleagues, offered the first laparoscopic nephrectomy course in Canada and he founded the first postgraduate urology residency program at McMaster University along with the late Dr. Paul Whelan and Dr. Kevin Piercey.
In other endeavours, he took part in a program in 2004 to demonstrate surgeons can make long-distance house calls with robots into space. From Hamilton, he assisted with an operation in a laboratory under the ocean off the Florida Keys. And in 2017, he livestreamed a kidney operation.
Piercey, head of services for urology at St. Joseph’s Hospital, said his friend was beloved and seen as “a rock star.”
“He was a fun-loving guy,” he said. “We always had a lot of fun. He had a way of making everyone feel better. When he was in the room, you knew everything was going to be OK. He was a gifted surgeon.”
Piercey said Kapoor’s funeral in Toronto on March 9 was attended by hundreds of people and viewed on Zoom by people from Vancouver to Halifax.
In a statement, St. Joseph’s Healthcare said Kapoor’s loss “is deeply felt by the entire urologic and genitourinary cancer community coast to coast.” Kapoor worked with the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation in garnering donations for research.
Kapoor was born in Montreal, on April 30, 1964, to Dr. Brij and Sudershan Kapoor. He was nicknamed Monty because he was born in Montreal.
Kapoor was raised in Dartmouth, N.S., and completed his MD in 1991 at Dalhousie University. His father was a biology professor at St. Mary’s University in Halifax.
Kapoor specialized in urology at the University of Manitoba and went on to complete a fellowship in renal transplantation and renovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic under Dr. Andrew Novick, a former Hamiltonian who was one of the world’s most eminent urologists and transplant surgeons. Kapoor joined McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1999.
He published 300 papers and received awards like the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Medical Staff Education Award in 2004.
Kapoor is survived by his sons Akshay and Jeevan, his mother Sudershan and his siblings Sunil and Vimal.
He is also survived by his former wife Renu.