Professor R.V.S. Yadav was born on 27 July 1937 in Nauliharnathpur (District Badaun), Uttar Pradesh, India. He was awarded the MBBS in 1961 and the MS (Surgery) in 1964 respectively from the King George's Medical College, Lucknow University, Lucknow (KGMC). He received the FICS (General Surgery) in 1974 from the International College of Surgeons and the FACS (General Surgery) in 1977 from the American College of Surgeons.

Subsequent to his graduation, he worked with premiere teaching institutions of the country including the KGMC, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the BJ Medical College (Ahmedabad) and the PGIMER (Chandigarh). He spent over three and a half years at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne University, Melbourne and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, Australia for receiving exclusive training in kidney transplantation and dialysis. He learnt the art and science of transplant surgery from several world class experts in the field during the course of his stay in Australia. His involvement in the speciality of kidney transplantation hails back to 1967 when he served as co-investigator in an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scheme on kidney preservation and kidney transplantation in dogs. Since then he had been continuously involved with and worked for the progress of the speciality along with the practice of General Surgery.

At the time of his demise, he was the senior most transplant surgeon in India. On his return from Australia he performed the first haemo-dialysis at Ahmedabad. In 1973 he performed the first human kidney transplant in North India at the PGIMER and laid the foundation of the first transplant unit of the region. The unit that Professor R.V.S. Yadav established continues to impart training to surgical and medical students at the postgraduate level besides nursing and para medical staff. Professor R.V.S. Yadav trained over 25 surgeons in the field of transplantation besides numerous nephrologists and nursing teams. In recognition of the services of Professor R.V.S. Yadav, the Government of India sanctioned the first-of-its-kind centre for transplantation at the PGIMER where research, speciality training and service was sought to be provided under one roof. The centre is operational.

Professor R.V.S. Yadav has over a thousand clinical and experimental kidney transplants to his credit and several hundred allied surgical procedures. His patient population hailed from various parts of India including Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir and overseas. A number of his patients till date after successful kidney transplantation are upto their twentieth year post surgery and continue to be well rehabilitated.

Transplant surgery, which is very complicated, major and delicate, requires long hours and prolonged and meticulous work on and off the operation table. Professor R.V.S. Yadav assisted several centres across the country including those in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Bangalore to launch their transplant surgery programs. He visited several institutes demonstrating surgical techniques and delivering lectures on the subject for the benefit of professional colleagues and the larger medical fraternity. His patients hailed from all walks of life and included farmers, labourers, teachers, housewives, students, engineers, doctors, academicians, clerks and executives. He was a dedicated research worker and established an active experimental transplant laboratory where three to four research workers were actively involved at any given time on a number of research projects.

Professor R.V.S. Yadav's main research activities included:

Experimental Kidney Transplantation and Kidney Preservation

With an aim to establish a kidney bank, he developed a simple and inexpensive perfusion solution with which kidneys could be safely preserved for 24 hours outside the human body before transplant. This initiative promises to go a long way in the kidney exchange program once India develops an even better and more comprehensive network of centres and the cadaver kidney donation program picks momentum and becomes mainstream. Effect of ischaemania on kidney, protection against these ill effects and better and more prolonged preservation techniques were investigated on dogs as a part of this research activity.

Ovarian and Uterotubovarian Complex Transplantation

To restore fertility in barren female dogs, isolated ovarian transplant for hormonal substitution without vascular anastomosis was successfully achieved in smaller animals. The attempt thereafter was to replace the entire internal genital tract of female dogs – a situation more akin to clinical problems of gross destruction of reproductive system by disease. In fifty percent of sterile couples, the cause lies with the woman. Such women unfortunately carry a social stigma of being barren and some of them even end their lives. There are also a number of couples who after female sterilization operation lose their only child. Both these categories need to be helped. Professor R.V.S. Yadav’s research activity in this area carried great hope for these women and was a unique breakthrough in the field of transplant surgery. He and his team remained engaged in this work for over three years and the results achieved were immensely encouraging. His research efforts were hailed and got accepted for formal presentation before the national body of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the International College of Surgeons.

Experimental Pancreatic Transplantation

To reverse diabetes is another pioneering work Professor R.V.S. Yadav took up. 2 percent of the population of India suffers from diabetes and a large percentage is dependent on insulin injections injected twice or thrice a day which makes life miserable for the patient. Moreover, insulin treatment does not eliminate the dreadful complications of diabetes, it merely prolongs life.

Professor R.V.S. Yadav was member of various prestigious professional societies such as the International Transplantation Society, the British Transplantation Society, the Australian Nephrology Society, the Indian Nephrology Society, the Association of Surgeons of India and the International College of Surgeons. He was an ICMR expert on Organ Transplantation and was on the expert panel of the Institute of Medical Sciences at Srinagar and the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences at Lucknow.

Professor R.V.S. Yadav was a prominent examiner in surgery and nephrology for postgraduate degrees. He had acted as an expert for the Union Public Service Commission. He was invited as a visiting fellow to the Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand and visiting professor to several Indian universities. He lectured at universities in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom regarding the progress of transplant surgery in India. He was appointed as honorary associate to the University of Melbourne Hospital. He was visitor to numerous transplant centres in the United States, the United Kingdom, various countries in Asia.

Professor R.V.S. Yadav was invited for demonstrating kidney transplantation surgery in Pakistan. He could also attract an overwhelming number of luminaries and visiting professors in the field of transplantation from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. He introduced the Organ Donor Card Program in India and popularised the Cadaver Kidney Donor Program in India for the first time in 1976. He organized a very successful sports meet for kidney donors and recipients for the first time in India in 1981 which proved to be an excellent forum for publicity in aid of this noble cause and a morale booster for patients and donors and an eye opener and real time education to the public at large. Since he first organised the games, these transplant games have become a regular activity in India with various centres now organising these in various parts of India. He also held (for the first time) a transplant convention in 1983 where eminent people from religious organizations, the bureaucracy, the legal profession, patients and donors and the general public freely discussed various issues related to organ transplantation. Professor R.V.S. Yadav had taken up the issue of legalising cadaver donation with the Government of India and the State Government of Punjab.

In recognition of his dedication and achievements, he was awarded the Padma Shri in 1982. His selfless, persistent and untiring service towards the ailing humanity and his concern for enhancing national honors and the progress of the speciality of organ transplantation in India remain unmatched.

Professor R.V.S. Yadav's last held positions were Senior Consultant in Transplant Surgery at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi (Apollo Hospital) and Chairman, Department of Transplantation Surgery, Nephrology & Urology at the Metro Hospitals, Noida (Metro Hospital).

His detailed experience includes