Pioneering OB/GYN Dr. Francis Sam delivered thousands of babies and helped bring free health care to immigrants in need

When Francis Sam was 12, his mother became ill with an undiagnosed malady. Instead of going to a physician, she sought treatment from a local herbalist in their native Ghana.

Though Emma Mills died, in her young son — who was adamant his mother would have survived had she visited a doctor — a passion for helping others was born. “That tragic experience was the main inspiration for his subsequent commitment to a career in medicine,” says Maxine Bailey, his wife of almost 20 years.

Sam’s hard work in school paid off. Sixty years ago, he was selected through a government program to study in Canada, with the goal of having him return to help his developing country.

As one of Canada’s preeminent Black physicians, and a pioneering African-Canadian obstetrician/gynecologist, Sam not only helped to fund a hospital in Accra, Ghana’s capital, but he gave back to his adopted home. For nearly 50 years, he delivered babies in Toronto, built a practice specializing in difficult gynecological issues and quietly took on pro bono work for immigrants in need.

Born in Accra, Francis Bainyin Sam was one of 13 siblings. He attended the historic Adisadel College in Cape Coast. In 1961, the Canadian International Development Agency, in partnership with then Ghanian President Kwame Nkrumah, awarded him one of two medical scholarships to study in Canada. The 24-year-old left his home to begin pre-med undergraduate studies at the University of Alberta.

After graduating in 1968, the newly minted doctor, husband and father returned to Ghana as one of very few foreign-trained physicians. As a medical officer for the Ghana Armed Forces, “Captain Sam,” as he became known, worked at military hospitals in Takoradi and Accra, where he was responsible for everything from managing infectious diseases to general surgery. He returned to the University of Alberta in 1972 to complete a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, moving to Toronto to open a private practice at College and Spadina in 1976.

At the time one of the few African OB/GYN specialists in Canada, Dr. Sam held privileges at Grace Hospital, University Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, the Salvation Army Hospital and the former Doctors Hospital, delivering more than 7,500 babies over the course of his career. As an expert in infertility, Dr. Sam helped hundreds of couples fulfill their dreams of parenthood. He was also a specialist in uterine fibroids, a condition prevalent in Black women, and performed surgery on hundreds of local patients, as well as women who travelled from the Caribbean and Africa specifically to see him.

Dr. Sam took on many immigrant cases, and often provided free medical services, says his daughter Tanya Sam. “I can recall hundreds of women who would approach us on the street saying, ‘Your dad delivered my children,’ or ‘Your dad saved my life,’” she says. “Even now, through social media, I continue to get messages from his old patients who came to Canada and were awaiting healthcare. Dad treated and saw them regardless, knowing all too well the struggles of immigrating to new countries.”

He lived to help others, but equally important to him was his family. He had four children: Garth (born 1964) and Araba (1969) with his wife Catherine Wright; and Tanya (1978) and Tamara (1980) with his second wife Sandra Jane Pennell. Later he became grandfather to Shane and Adeline.

“He introduced me to the diverse world outside and within Canada, our Ghanaian heritage, Black Canada and the Caribbean,” says Tamara. “He taught me how to live a life filled with laughter, music, hard work, friends and family.”

A leader in the African-Canadian community of Toronto, he was known for his outgoing, larger-than-life personality. “He was always the life of the party,” says Tanya. “There was no event too small to warrant celebrating.”

The doors of his private home on Edenbridge Drive were open to acquaintances, who, for almost 25 years, were invited to stay, sometimes for months at a time. “Family, exchange students, Africans and foreigners from the Caribbean visiting Canada knew they would always receive a warm welcome,” says nephew Francis Nana Fosu.

Before his retirement in 2012 — when he and Maxine began to split their time between Toronto and his hometown — Dr. Sam fulfilled an almost-50-year-old promise, becoming one of the initial investors in the Ghana-Canada Medical Centre, a diagnostic and treatment specialty hospital located in the Accra region. The facility, which opened in 2009, was started by a group of Ghanaian doctors who returned after obtaining professional degrees abroad or working abroad, says Dr. Araba Sam, who followed in her father’s footsteps by becoming an OB/GYN. She calls it “one of his passion projects.”

As much as he loved the Toronto that loved him, “returning to Ghana was always part of our dad’s plan,” says Araba. “His vision was to study abroad, return home, and give back. Becoming a physician was his way to do just that.”

“Our father had an exceptional life filled with extraordinary accomplishments that saw him proudly straddle two continents,” says Garth. “He was an inspiration and pioneer to many in the African diaspora community.”