Pittsburgh transplant surgeon never sought accolades
A gifted and brilliant transplant surgeon, Dr. Carlos Vivas was one of those rare people who never sought accolades or admiration, though he earned plenty of both.
The native of Argentina, trained by famed UPMC surgeon and transplant pioneer Thomas Starzl, had intangible qualities that went beyond his considerable skills, according to other doctors with whom he worked and trained with, such as Thomas Hakala, a world-renowned transplant surgeon.
“There are very many contributions in making a department run successfully,” said Dr. Hakala, chief of urology at UPMC for more than 20 years and medical director of the Transplant and Organ Procurement Foundation of Western Pennsylvania before his retirement. “Brilliance is one, outstanding organization is another. Carlos was all of those things — a very good clinician, good surgical judgment and you could trust what he said. The patients liked him and he was really a good person. Goodnesswas his main feature.”
“He is probably the most selfless person I ever met,” said Dr. John C. “Chris” Lyne, one of Dr. Vivas’ partners at Triangle Urological
Group. “You’d wake him up at 3 in the morning with a patient problem and he’d go, ‘Hello my friend!’
“He was never upset, never annoyed. His kindness also transcended into his care of patients. Everyone really admired him and his complete lack of ego.”
“Carlos was dedicated to helping people — he wasn’t just their doctor. He was more than that — we would operate together for hours at a time. He was one of the kindest, sweetest, most dedicated people out there,” said Dr. Jeffrey S. Cohen, another partner at Triangle Urological, which was absorbed into the urology department at AlleghenyHealth Network. “He thought of medicine as kind of a religious commitment to helphis fellow man.”
Dr. Vivas, of McCandless, died Feb. 21 of a brain injury he suffered in a fall. He was 74.
He grew up near Buenos Aires, the son of an otolaryngologist, or an ear, nose and throat doctor.
Shortly after he earned a medical degree at the Catholic University of Cordoba and completed an internship at a hospital in Cordoba in 1974, Dr. Vivas immigrated to the U.S., hoping to study urology and renal medicine.
He served as an intern and resident in general surgery at Pontiac General Hospital in Pontiac, Mich., where he met Renee Earl, a nursing school student.
“We met on an elevator in a hospital in Michigan,” she recalled. “I was dropping off a specimen in the lab and he was doing a residency. I married my knight in shining armor.”
After their 1979 wedding, the couple lived for several years in Argentina, followed by a residency in urology at a hospital in Minneapolis that Dr.Vivas completed in 1988.
Later that year, he became one of the first fellows to study renal transplantation under Drs. Hakala and Starzl at UPMC.
“That really clicked for him, academically and culturally,” said his son, Andres Vivas, of Buenos Aires. “He found an excellent group to work with and discovered transplantation was his true passion. It’s what he most enjoyed doing. Dr.
Hakala was my dad’s chief mentor and someone who was his idol, along with Dr. Starzl.”
After about 18 months in Pittsburgh, Dr. Vivas returned to Michigan, but Dr. Hakala urged him to come back to UPMC permanently if the opportunity arose.
By 1992, Dr. Vivas moved his young family to Pittsburgh and began a long and fruitful career at UPMC and later at AHN and local Veterans Affairs medical centers.
When Mr. Vivas was looking to leave UPMC in 2001, Dr. Cohen didn’t have to think twice about bringing him aboard Triangle as a partner.
Before he retired in 2022, Dr. Vivas did more than 1,300 renal transplants and trained countless medical students and residents at Pitt.
“He lived for it — surgery and his patients were his life,” said his wife. “It was everything to him.”
“He lived the American dream, he did exactly what he was born to do, what he was most passionate about, and he got to do it in a special town, at two very prestigious and special institutions and he got to do it with really good people who amountedto more than close friends,” his son said. “They were his family too.”
Dr. Vivas generally shunned awards, though he occasionally acquiesced for residents who frequently recognized him as a favorite teacher.
“He was a renowned transplant surgeon and he was beloved by patients, staff and faculty,” said his longtime friend and colleague Dr. Ron Hrebinko, professor of urology at the Pitt School of Medicine. “He had a big impact.”
The loss of Dr. Vivas is being felt deeply by those who knew him best, said friends and colleagues like Dr. Ronald Shapiro, surgical director of kidney and pancreas transplantation at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
“Carlos was very experienced, a great teacher and a wonderful surgeon,” said Dr. Shapiro, formerly an instructor and colleague of Dr. Vivas’ at UPMC. “In addition to having great surgical and transplantation judgment, he was just a sweetheart. I’m completely heartbroken that he’s gone.”
“Carlos was well known and respected in the urologic community, and I and my colleagues had great admiration for him as an excellent surgeon and compassionate physician,” said urologic surgeon Dr. Frank Costa. “I was fortunate to know him and collaborate with him ...”
During the last days of his life, his father got to reconnect with some old friends and mentors, like Dr. Hakala, his son said.
“It’s very fitting that he took his last breath at [Allegheny General Hospital] with a view of the Pittsburgh skyline and the UPMC logo right smack-dab in the middle and he got to hear Dr. Hakala’s voice one last time with my mom’s cellphone on his chest. That was his life in a nutshell.”
His father filled him with pride not for his career accomplishments, but for his kindness, courage and character, his son said.
“He was a brilliant surgeon, but the human aspect and the content of his character is what I’m most proud of when I think of my dad,” he said.
Along with his wife and son, Dr. Vivas is survived by his siblings in Argentina: María Angélica Vivas de Sassi, of Río Cuarto, in the Province of Córdoba; María del Carmen Vivas de Vásquez, and José Miguel Vivas, both of Viedma, in the Rio Negro Province.
A memorial service will be held at a later date.
Donations are suggested to the Center for Organ Recovery & Education at: 204 Sigma Drive, RIDC Park, Pittsburgh, PA 15238.