Inspire 2018 FALL

Kapiolani: 10,000 Babies Delivered and Counting

Dr. Thomas Kosasa doesn’t leave much to chance. In college he planned to go to medical school, but still earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Dartmouth College as a backup. But that’s not all he had been studying. Between college courses, he was also training to be a pilot.

“I started flying while at Dartmouth as a freshman,” Dr. Kosasa said. “I had my commercial license by the time I graduated.”

During medical school at Dartmouth and then later at McGill University, Dr. Kosasa attended classes during the day and flew cargo planes at night. On his way to eventually more than 5,000 hours in the air, he would also earn his airline transport pilot license. His experience was valuable when he joined the critical care transport team at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children. As a pilot and physician, he helped pioneer a program that provided flights for expectant mothers with high-risk pregnancies.

“When I started flying for the air ambulance organization they would deliver the babies on the neighbor islands, fly the Kapiolani transport team over and then pick up a small baby in an incubator,” Dr. Kosasa said. “But then I thought it would be better to pick up the mom and then deliver at Kapiolani. There was push back because they [doctors at both hospitals] would say ‘Whose patient is it between here and Honolulu?’ Since I was on every flight, I’d sign off and say the patient was my responsibility.”

Fittingly, he earned the nickname “Stork” for his flying doctor days. That moniker suits his entire career. In April 2018, Dr. Kosasa delivered his 10,000th baby and is still going strong.

“I was keeping count, but I was not going to tell anybody,” Dr. Kosasa said. “It’s fulfilling because every baby is special. Sometimes things happen – patients bleed heavily or the baby has a drop in heartbeat – and then you have to act pretty quickly. But it's a nice feeling to be able to bring someone into life.”

One of the most notable deliveries he was involved in was the arrival of Hawaii’s first test-tube baby, Jacquelyn Low in 1985. Dr. Kosasa was part of a team of doctors with the Pacific In Vitro Fertilization Institute at Kapiolani who helped Jacquelyn’s mom, Janice, and father, James, become new parents.

“Dr. Kosasa made me feel like I didn’t have anything to worry about,” Janice said.

Doctors were concerned about a few things. Complications from an unrelated surgery had kept Janice from conceiving for six years. After the in vitro procedure, which was still relatively new to the medical community at the time, doctors kept a close eye on her progress. Then, one day the expectant mother began to bleed.

“I went to the emergency room and I remember everyone scattering around,” she said. “One of the attending physicians there said ‘No one is to touch her. Dr. Kosasa is coming right now.”

Fortunately, Janice was fine and months later delivered her healthy baby girl.

She never forgot the care she received. Decades later, when it was Jacquelyn’s turn to begin planning her own family, Janice told her exactly who she should ask to be her doctor.

“My mom said I want nothing but the best for you, and she was referring to Dr. Kosasa,” Jacquelyn said.

She listened. It would turn out to be a fortunate decision. Dr. Kosasa discovered Jacquelyn had a pre-existing condition that would make it difficult to get pregnant naturally.

“This is when I started to understand a little bit more of what my mom went through when I was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome,” Jacquelyn said. “There were these little cysts that prevented the egg from becoming full size or fully developed and so my chances of conceiving were not good.”

Just as her mom learned before, Dr. Kosasa’s “calm, kind and gentle” approach to what could be a challenging dream of having a child kept Jacquelyn positive throughout her journey.

“He was taking my safety and my baby's safety very seriously throughout the entire pregnancy,” Jacquelyn said. And when her daughter, little Sadie, decided to enter the world, she almost marked another milestone in the doctor’s career. “I was hoping that it would be his 10,000th baby. We just missed it. I think he said Sadie was 9,996.”

The delivery room is not the only place where Dr. Kosasa is influencing new generations. He's been teaching future physicians for more than 30 years including medical students at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.

“He always goes over things and explains his thought process,” chief resident at Kapiolani, Dr. Katherine Huang said. “He’ll say ‘These are the complications associated with doing x, y and z versus doing it this way.’ Dr. Kosasa’s perfected his technique over time and built a very good foundation for us who are still figuring out how we want to do our surgeries. He’s a very precise surgeon.”

And a very active mentor. Every Monday morning, second-year residents get a chance to meet with him one-on-one for an hour to ask questions about reproductive endocrinology. Every Friday, he reviews pertinent topics with medical students and will sometimes present lectures for 25 or more residents. Dr. Kosasa calls the opportunity to teach a privilege, which is why he makes it a priority.

“He goes out of his way to make sure there are opportunities to teach,” Dr. Huang said. “Any C-section he does, he always has a resident come observe and gets residents involved in operating room cases as well. Dr. Kosasa is a medical giant in this community, but you wouldn't know it by talking to him.”

Humble to the core, Dr. Kosasa does not spend much time talking about himself. If he did, he would have quite a few stories to tell. In addition to his life as a pilot and flight instructor, he is a retired U.S. Army Major who was Chief of Gynecology at Fort Benning, Georgia and was a race car driver for 13 years. He called his first speedster the “Hawaiian Punch.” It was an inspired gift from a very important woman in his life.

“My grandmother wanted me to go to medical school,” Dr. Kosasa said. “She knew that having good grades would improve the chance of my acceptance. She told me that I could have any car I wanted if I received A’s in organic chemistry. After receiving my A’s, I purchased the fastest Corvette in New England and raced it when I was still an undergraduate. During my residency and fellowship at Harvard Medical School, I won first place driving a Porsche in the SCCA North American Road Racing Series.”

His grandmother, Mitsue Kosasa, shaped him in many other ways as well. Dr. Kosasa credits her for his commitment to philanthropy. He is a board member for the Kapiolani Health Foundation and one of the medical center’s leading donors.

“My grandmother gave back,” Dr. Kosasa said. “I mean she sold her diamond ring to buy land for her church. So I think her influence was quite marked on my career.”

For a man who has achieved in multiple careers, dedicated his life to creating and caring for families, given generously of his time and money and blazed a trail for new physicians, Dr. Kosasa says the reason for all he does is simple.

“I think being kind is important and everything one does must come from one’s heart.”