Dr. Harold A. Lehman

Harold was born on March 5, 1950 in Inglewood California. He was born with a Congenital Heart Defect, Tetralogy of Fallot, and had his first major heart surgery when he was 3, and a second one I could he was 13. In spite of his heart problems he completed his Medical Degree with flying colors when he was 29. He then had a third major heart surgery when he was 30. Since his MD was from the American University of the Caribbean, he took and passed his Foreign Medical Graduation easily. He then started to tutor several foreign medical graduates in East Lansing, Michigan, and that is how he met his wife, Rose. They married on March 19, 1982 and went to get his residency at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Harold wrote an article that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, during his residency. He then got an NIH Fellowship in Blood Banking at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St Louis, Missouri. Harold had a cardiac arrest on December 29, 1989, but got through that with flying colors. After 2 years at Barnes, he and Rose went back to Buffalo, where he got another Fellowship at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He was in and out of the Hospital for heart problems. In 1991, he won $27,000.00 in a USA Today stock picking contest, so he retired and doing stock market transactions at home was his full time job. He continued to have heart problems, and no Cardiologist or Electrophysiologist in Western New York could manage his condition. He went to Cleveland Clinic, where he was managed by an Electrophysiologist and an Adult Congenital Heart Disease Specialist. He was born without a Pulmonary Valve, so he received one at the Cleveland Clinic on January 17, 2012His right heart ventricle was huge before the surgery, and his heart went back to almost normal. He had a stroke on September 1, 2012, and was 6 months in the Hospital. Harold got through all these problems with flying colors, and he remained optimistic and kept up with Medical and scientific endeavors. He loved life, had a great sense of humor, very kind and generous and he and Rose were looking forward to traveling and seeing new places. LA was part of their travel plans, and then attend his brother- and-sister-in law’s 50th wedding anniversary. After surviving so many surgeries/illnesses, his life was cut short by accidentally choking on a piece of steak, leaving behind a grieving wife, sister nephews and in-laws. He is survived by his wife Dr LEOROSA O LEHMAN, sister Linda Parker, nephews Aron and Alan, brother-and sister-in-law Leo and Thelma Orendain, sister in law Nita Orendain, niece Pauline (Dino Fulgencio) and their son Dylan, nephew Leo Joaquin Orendain (Claudia) and children Danny, Leo Ezekiel and Livi, niece Lausanne (Jimmy Diep) and children Nalani and Keanu, and niece RONA Orendain.