Dr. Susan Lenkei (Kerwin), 97, died peacefully at the Baycrest Centre on June 17, 2024. Susan led a life rich in purpose and positive impact. She was a pioneer in clinical cardiology and had an indelible influence on the generations of clinicians she trained and mentored.
From a young age, Susan was self-assured, driven and focused. Born in Budapest in 1926, Susan left Hungary after the war to enrol in medical school in Switzerland. She then immigrated to Canada and never looked back, training as a cardiologist in Canada and the U.S., and eventually joining the staff of Toronto Western Hospital.
There, Susan served as director of the Cardiac Investigation Unit and subsequently as division chief of cardiology. She became well-known for her fierce commitment to her patients and for making improved patient outcomes in the division an imperative.
After Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western merged, she took on major clinical leadership roles at The General. She operated on the vanguard of cardiology practice, and became renowned for her clinical expertise and judgment as well as her steadfast focus on putting the patient first.
When she retired just before she turned 85, she had worked at The University Health Network for 52 years. Susan had risen to the pinnacle of a profession that was dominated by and biased toward men, especially in the first decades of her career. She continues to be remembered by many cardiologists and other physicians as a larger-than-life figure: a catalyst for change and improvement and a role model who held herself, those she trained, and those she worked with to the highest standards.
Medicine was not her only passion. Susan loved and was loved by her family: the late Dr. A. J. Kerwin; her daughter, Catherine Ann; and her grandchildren. In her free time, she liked to read, learn and travel.
Susan was proud of the work that she and her fellow physicians, the nurses and other hospital staff accomplished together. Instead of a service, Susan asked to be remembered with a donation to The Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at The University Health Network, where she spent so much of her life doing what she loved.