[1][2] "Usually referred to as the outstanding general surgeon in the world today, at times of crisis he was never known to lose either his head or his nerve," stated the Boston Globe in 1953.
In 1953, gastroenterologist Sara Jordan, one of the first to join Lahey's practice, published an article in New England Journal of Medicine that noted: "His skill [brought] hundreds of surgeons from all parts of the world to see him operate and to share with him the knowledge and experience he was always ready to pass on to others."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Lahey to serve on a special commission to report on medical standards during World War II.
This, and his extensive experience as a military surgeon, that strengthened Lahey's belief that anesthesia had created a new kind of surgery, which was best performed and refined by teams of surgical specialists.
He also operated on, or consulted with, many notables in his lifetime, including President Anastasio Somoza García of Nicaragua, and Anthony Eden of Great Britain.
When the House of Representatives met shortly after his death on June 27, 1953, a memorial speech was delivered in his honor and concludes: "The medical profession has lost one of its greatest members.