Pioneering Valley surgeon exits ER, enters vineyard

BY WILLIAM K. ALCORN

alcorn@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Dr. Michael S. Kavic, a pioneer of laparoscopic surgery in the U.S., is leaving the drama and adrenaline highs of the operating room to operate a vineyard and winery.

Dr. Kavic, director of education and general surgery at St. Elizabeth Health Center, is leaving St. Elizabeth on Wednesday.

But he doesn’t think of it as retiring. “I’m just changing careers,” he said.

During his long career as a surgeon, medical scholar and teacher, he had a

private audience with Pope John Paul II, was recognized for being among the first to practice minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery and founded a journal for laparoscopic surgeons. In 2009, the Society of Laparoscopic Surgeons named its top resident recognition the Michael S. Kavic Resident of the Year Award.

“Being a surgeon, you routinely save lives. There is nothing like the drama of surgery. We even refer to it as the operating theater.

“There is a ritual. You are gowned and gloved. You observe sterile techniques. It is almost like being a priest ... sometimes more important,” he said.

But there is another side to the play.

“You quickly realize your limitations. If you are not on top of your game, someone is going to get hurt or die,” Dr. Kavic said.

“There are bits and pieces of surgeons in every operating room. Time dulls the pain, but you never forget. Every surgeon carries those scars to the grave, and the experiences are cumulative.”

Dr. Kavic said he will maintain an affiliation with St. Elizabeth Health Center, where he has spent much of his career, and with the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and Pharmacy, where he teaches and chairs and sits on numerous committees.

At St. Elizabeth, he is director of education in general surgery, chairman of the Surgical Education Committee, and a member of the Trauma and Ethics Committees, among other positions.

Also, he plans to continue as editor and chief of the Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, which he founded 15 years ago.

Dr. Kavic first learned laparoscopic techniques at the Advanced Laparoscopic Training Center in Georgia in 1990, and in 1992 at the University of Kiel in Germany.

Gynecologists had been doing laparoscopic surgery for tubal ligations for years, but no one in the U.S. had turned the microscope the other way and gone up to operate on hernias and gall bladders, he said.

Before 1989 or 1990 in the U.S., gall bladder removal was major surgery involving a large incision and a hospital stay. With laparoscopic surgery, it is done as an outpatient and involves three little incisions, Dr. Kavic said.

After his training in Georgia and Germany, he established his own training lab in Pittsburgh, managed by his wife Patricia, a registered nurse. At the time, it was one of only two such labs in the country accredited to teach laparoscopic surgery.

In 2001, Dr. Kavic was one of 25 people identified by the U.S. Laparoscopic Founders Society for bringing laparoscopic surgery to the U.S.

“Can you imagine what it was like ... doing a new procedure? We were criticized by our own colleagues. I had to testify in 1991 before the Health and Human Services Committee to justify to the federal panel that Medicare should reimburse for the procedure.”

Today laparoscopic surgery has impacted all of medicine, he said.

Dr. Kavic says he will continue to live in Canfield, but he is ready to move on to a new field, wine making, which he also sees as a contribution to society.

“I look at wine as augmenting our life experiences. When you drink wine in moderation, it lifts spirits,” he said.

Dr. Kavic said he and Patricia have been making wine at home for 30 years, mostly for the family, and selling wine made at their winery since 2007.

But, their ultimate dream is selling wine from grapes they plant in their own vineyard next spring on 4 or 5 acres in Moon Township near Pittsburgh International Airport.

The grapes will be riesling for white wine and cham.

bourcin for red wine, both of which do well in cooler climates, Dr. Kavic said.

They expect to have grapes in three years, and allowing for 18 months to two years to age, to be selling their own chardonnay white and cabernet red wine in about five years.

But in just a few days, he will face the emotional leaving of a profession that has been his life, something he had wanted even as a child.

“I will miss my colleagues and the patients. I will miss the profession. I loved being a surgeon,” Dr. Kavic said.