Dr. Laura Weldon Hoque, 44, a specialist in breast diseases and surgery who helped establish Hawai'i's first breast center at Kapi'olani Medical Center in 2004, died this month in the Washington, D.C., area, where she had been living for two years.

Hoque died July 16 of complications from a bowel obstruction, her husband, Tareq Hoque, told The Advertiser. Before his wife fell ill several months ago, the Hoques and their four children had been planning to return to Honolulu, where Dr. Hoque practiced from 1998 to 2007, he said.

"It is a loss to Hawai'i and to the women of Hawai'i," said Martha Smith, chief operating officer at Kapi'olani Medical Center, where Hoque was medical director of the Breast Center from 2004 to 2007. "She was an advocate for women and women's health."

'ONE-STOP SHOP'

Hoque was instrumental in designing Kapi'olani's Breast Center as a "one-stop shop" for breast disease screening and treatment, and attracted research grants to the facility, Smith said.

With the center's establishment, "we did have tremendous growth ... and she was an integral part of that success," Smith said.

"She was a good surgeon and very caring with her patients," Smith added.

Hoque performed 40 to 50 breast surgeries a month, said Michelle Meredith, the former administrator of Kapi'olani's Breast Center.

"She was really a passionate person, very generous, very caring. Her patients just spoke the world of her," Meredith said. "And she really believed in research and education."

Hoque was born April 5, 1965, in New York City, moved to Hawai'i at a young age and graduated from Punahou School in 1983. She received undergraduate and master's degrees in biology from Boston College and her medical degree from the Boston University School of Medicine.

Hoque was a University of Hawai'i surgery intern in 1993-1994, then a surgery resident from 1994 to 1997 at Saint Vincent's Hospital, and a breast surgery fellow in 1997 and 1998 at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, both in New York City.

Hoque's interest in breast cancer was sparked when "her aunt and my mother had breast cancer almost at the same time, and they had very different outcomes," Tareq Hoque said in a telephone interview from the Washington, D.C., area.

"She felt that there was quite a gap in terms of quality of care and standards of care in Hawai'i," Hoque said. "There were things she had learned as a fellow at Sloan-Kettering she thought would be enormously helpful here."

"She was admired for her leadership in the medical community (in Honolulu) for bringing true innovation to the treatment of women with breast disease here, with new technology and new skills," Hoque said.

Hoque was then-Gov.-elect Linda Lingle's surgeon for a breast biopsy in 2002, after an abnormality was found in a routine mammogram.

"I feel very fortunate to have someone of Dr. Hoque's reputation and expertise to guide me through this," Lingle said at the time.

Lingle used her experience, which ended with a clean bill of health, to emphasize the importance of routine mammograms.

'LAURA'S THE ONE'

Former patient Sharon Twigg-Smith, who has been cancer free for five years, said she's grateful to Hoque for discovering her breast cancer at an early stage.

Hoque "had a very good bedside manner," Twigg-Smith said. "She spent lots of extra time going through the process with me, trying to decide what to do."

Kapi'olani's Breast Center is "a wonderful place for women to go," Twigg-Smith said, saying that a woman can get mammogram results in a matter of minutes instead of days. And if a woman needs additional testing, such as ultrasound, it usually can be done immediately.

"I think Laura's the one that set it up that way," Twigg-Smith said. "Everything is right there. ... Women feel like they're completely taken care of."

Tareq Hoque wrote in a note to friends and colleagues: "As a breast surgeon Laura, touched the lives of thousands of woman and saved countless victims of disease. As a mother of four wonderful children, she gave them every opportunity to feel loved and valued for their individual strengths. She was a wonderful wife and someone I can never replace. I will miss her forever."

In addition to her husband and children Khalil, Kaelyn, Laila and Kamal, who live in the Washington, D.C., area, Hoque is survived by her parents, Edward and Kathryn Weldon, of Kahala; brothers, Dr. Edward Weldon, of O'ahu, and Jeff Weldon, of Oakland, Calif.

An O'ahu memorial service will be held, but no date has been set, Tareq Hoque said. In lieu of flowers, he asked that contributions be made in Hoque's name to the Grameen Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps women and children in underdeveloped countries. (www.grameenfoundation.org).