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Rosenberg Retires After Career of Complex Surgeries

Wade Rosenberg, MD, spent his decades-long career doing the most complex gastrointestinal surgeries on the highest risk patients. He became a surgeon in the company of famed Houston heart surgeons Michael DeBakey and George Noon and learned the “Whipple procedure” from Paul Jordan Jr., MD, who was one of the first surgeons in Houston to perform the procedure after Allen Whipple himself. “Paul Jordan, who was an older generation surgeon in the department, got me into pancreatic surgery. It was a high-risk operation, and I was challenged by the complex cases,” Rosenberg said, adding that he has spent the last 20 years of his career focusing on complex gastrointestinal surgery with a lot of pancreatic surgery.

Wade Rosenberg, MD

Recently co-director of the Lynda K. and David M. Underwood Center for Digestive Disorders at Houston Methodist, Rosenberg is ready for his next chapter and a quieter life on his farm in Cat Spring, Texas, where he and his wife will relax and raise English Pointer puppies.

“Most of (my patients) fully understand. I’ve worked really hard and for a long time,” Rosenberg said. “Over the years, a lot of my patients have become good friends of mine – so we’ve kept in contact for a long time. I think those relationships are what make medicine a good profession.” And what a great friend and co-worker to have, his contemporaries at the Underwood Center, say – an advanced surgeon who has spent a lifetime coming to the rescue in the direst of situations. His contemporaries at the Underwood Center call Rosenberg an understated and humble surgeon in a world of experts who sometimes have egos that fill up the room. Rosenberg is quiet and says very little, his friends say. He’s matter of fact, straightforward and very knowledgeable beneath a calm and subdued manner. “I’ve watched everything get better over the years,” Rosenberg said. “We definitely are better at making the diagnosis, and imaging has advanced. Operations have become very safe. We have new regimens for chemotherapy – sometimes before surgery and sometimes after.” He adds that chemotherapy is improving with a combination of agents now that are more effective than just a single agent. When he started his career, mortality for pancreas surgery patients was 10 or 15 percent and now it is down to only 1 percent. “Used to be we cured them with the operation, or we didn’t. Now, I see a lot of people we operated on eight or nine years ago,” he said.

Over the years, a lot of my patients have become good friends of mine – so we’ve kept in contact for a long time. I think those relationships are what make medicine a good profession.

Wade Rosenberg, MD

Last year, the Underwood Center created a new named lecture for Wade Rosenberg to honor his leadership in GI Surgery. A summer surgical fellowship also is sponsored by Rosenberg offering second, third and fourth-year undergraduates a physician shadowing opportunity. The Fields Rosenberg Summer Surgical Fellowship has a near-100 percent acceptance rate for alumni who later apply to medical school. Rosenberg said it was his oldest son who recommended the family get a dog after reading a quiz he took 25 years ago for what kind of dog the family should have. It was an English pointer. “That’s a hunting dog, and we don’t really hunt,” Rosenberg said. “So, we bought this dog. One thing led to another, and I started hunting.” He and his wife took the dog to Montana, then they started having some litters of puppies. Then, a former patient told him he wanted to show him some property in South Texas that he may like so he bought the property and built a house on it seven years ago. Now he is raising birddogs with his wife and is visited by his six grandchildren. “I feel very at ease about retiring,” he said.

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