Lena McEwan (original) (raw)

Lena McEwan (11 August 1927 - 4 October 2011) was the first woman to specialise in plastic surgery in Australia. She achieved her MBBS in 1949 from the University of Adelaide. Lena trained in Australia and England, completing her FRCS(Eng) Diploma in 1954 before returning to Adelaide and completing the FRACS Diploma in 1958. Lena published notable research on median and ulnar nerve injuries in 1962 which influenced future surgical practice. She was also president of the Victorian Medical Women's Society. Lena was also part of an interdisciplinary team formed in 1976 to work on gender reassignment who published their work in 1986: Male-to-Female Surgical Genital Reassignment.