Renowned American-born consultant cardiologist Dr David Morton Silverstein, who served as former President Daniel arap Moi’s personal physician for decades, has died aged 82.
Silverstein died on Sunday morning while undergoing treatment at an undisclosed hospital, his family said.
The veteran cardiologist had a close relationship with Moi that spanned more than four decades and extended beyond the traditional doctor-patient relationship.
The two first met in 1977, when Moi was 60 and Silverstein, then a 33-year-old cardiologist at the beginning of his career in Kenya, was working at Kenyatta National Hospital.
“His secretary, a Mrs Smith, called to ask me if I could see him and I told her I could see him any time at Kenyatta National Hospital. That is how we began our 42-year-old relation,” Silverstein recalled during Moi’s burial service at Kabarak.
Silverstein said their meetings often went beyond medical consultations. He recalled that he and Moi would pray together before discussing developments in medicine, the Old Testament and its relevance to the modern world, international politics and, occasionally, the situation in Israel.
According to a profile by the University of Chicago, Silverstein first came to Kenya in 1977, where he worked at the cardiac catheterisation laboratory at Kenyatta National Hospital. He later headed the hospital’s cardiology unit before being appointed chief cardiothoracic physician for the Government of Kenya.
His career in Kenya saw him attend to several prominent personalities, including former Attorney General Charles Njonjo and former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Mandela received medical attention from Silverstein during a visit to Kenya in July 1990 after falling ill with pneumonia.
In his 2016 biography, 'Against All Odds', Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka recalled Mandela’s arrival in Nairobi on July 11, 1990, and his subsequent treatment.
“There was a stretcher and other medical equipment in an ambulance. I expected to see Mandela wheeled out of the plane. To our surprise, he walked out of his plane; tall, majestic but looking frail,” Musyoka wrote.
He said Mandela was taken to the Nairobi Hospital, where he was attended to by Moi’s personal physician.
“He did not stay at the hospital for long. I think Dr Silverstein just attended to him and monitored him overnight,” Musyoka recalled.
