Toronto Star

A life dedicated to life itself

Dr. Bernard Ludwig brought 20,000 babies into the world

- JEFF GREEN STAFF REPORTER

If you were born in Toronto, there is a good chance you’ve met Dr. Bernard Ludwig — although you might have been too young to remember. Ludwig delivered more than 20,000 babies in Toronto, a nearly permanent on-call obstetrici­an who never took vacations and even went 10 years without visiting his Peterborou­gh-area cottage.

He enjoyed just over four years of retirement before passing away peacefully­two weeks ago, on Sept. 16, 2012. He was 90.

A 2008 profile of Ludwig in the Star described him as Toronto’s most prolific obstetrici­an-gynecologi­st. He was forced to quit the profession he devoted his life to at 86 because of a broken hip.

Born in Toronto on March 31, 1922, Ludwig was brought up in a modest home with his close sister, Beverley Borins, just 15 months his junior.

He graduated in medicine from the University of Toronto in 1945. His specialty was a matter of employment: the only residency that was available to him at the time was in obstetrics at Washington’s American University.

After further graduate work in Miami, he called in a favour from a Washington friend for a job back home. That landed him privileges at six Toronto hospitals in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Ludwig began his obstetrica­l practice at Mount Sinai Hospital in1950, then in a small house on Yorkville Ave.

“There were two people delivering at once sometimes,” Ludwig said in a 2008 interview, describing the single-room delivery area.

“Everybody yelling at the same time. Then they’d have to move them somewhere in the hall. It was a mess.”

Ludwig — affectiona­tely called “Bernie Baby” by friends and colleagues — daily donned white sneakers and walked more than six kilometres to work. His son in-law, Dr. Mark Gwartz, said in his eulogy that a “Ludwig Day” started with 45 minutes of skipping rope in the basement at 5 a.m. and wouldn’t end until patient calls were finished at 10 or 11 p.m. Unless, of course, there was a patient in or going into labour. On those nights, he slept in the hospital.

Gwartz said one of Ludwig’s patients, a well-known philanthro­pist, once said: “Bernie Ludwig dedicated his entire life to life itself.”

Ludwig and his wife, Margaret, had four children and 13 grandchild­ren. Margaret, an accomplish­ed artist, was patient with Ludwig despite his always being on call for a delivery.

Borins said Ludwig had left countless functions and weddings to deliver babies, and would even let the theatre know which seat he was in should a call come in.

Margaret wasn’t the only one who waited for the kind and caring Ludwig.

A pair of fellowship­s were created in Ludwig’s honour: One at the University of Toronto and Mount Sinai Hospital to continue projects in specialize­d obstetrica­l care and high-risk pregnancie­s, and another at the Herzog Hospital in Israel to train immigrant Ethiopian nurses.

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