Bohdan Pomahač
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Bohdan Pomahač (; born 8 March 1971) is a
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...
plastic surgeon. He led the team that performed the first full
face transplant A face transplant is a medical procedure to replace all or part of a person's face using tissue from a donor. Part of a field called "Vascularized Composite Tissue Allotransplantation" (VCA) it involves the transplantation of facial skin, the n ...
in United States and the third overall in the world.


Biography

Pomahač was born on 8 March 1971 in
Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...
,
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
(now the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
). His parents were a chemical engineer and a school teacher. The family lived in a small three-room apartment, and used to spend weekends at their weekend house in Morávka, a municipality in the
Moravian-Silesian Beskids The Moravian-Silesian Beskids (Czech: , ) is a mountain range in the Czech Republic with a small part reaching to Slovakia. It lies on the historical division between Moravia and Silesia, hence the name. It is part of the Western Beskids within ...
mountain range. As a teenager, Pomahač became a passionate chess player, devoting as many as 40 hours a week to his hobby. He was inspired by
Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (, ; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, ⁣and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 ...
and
Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
and made it to the major chess league in the country. After finishing high school in Ostrava, Pomahač became a student at the Palacký University of Olomouc
Faculty of Medicine A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...
. During the 6 years study, Pomahač went on
exchange Exchange or exchanged may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Exchange (film), or ''Deep Trap'', 2015 South Korean psychological thriller * Exchanged (film), 2019 Peruvian fantasy comedy * Exchange (TV program), 2021 Sou ...
to
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, United States, which influenced his subsequent career choice. Pomahač left for the United States immediately after finishing his studies in the Czech Republic in 1996. He was employed at the
Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH or The Brigham) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two ...
, where he worked for 90–120 hours a week. In 2000, Pomahač married Hana Augustinová, an eye doctor and also a Palacký University of Olomouc graduate. Together with their two children they live in
Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...
, a small town not far from Boston. They visit the Czech Republic once a year, when their children undergo Czech language tests in a school. In August 2021, Pomahač became the chief of plastic surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital, Connecticut, United States.


Face transplants

Although face transplants were not the centre of his research work, by 2004 he became increasingly interested in the subject and devoted much of his free time to it. Great incentive came when Pomahač met Isabelle Dinoire, the first person to undergo partial face transplant in 2005 in France. Dinoire told him that if the face had not been accepted, she was ready to undergo the procedure again. When Pomahač asked another patient why he sought repeated surgery, he told the doctor: “I just want a cab to stop when I’m at the curb.” In 2007 Pomahač became the head of the hospital's burn trauma centre and also head of the team specializing in facial transplants. On 9 April 2009 Pomahač performed the second partial face transplant in the United States (and seventh in the world). During a 17-hour operation, a surgical team led by Pomahač, replaced the nose, upper lip, cheeks, and roof of the mouth - along with corresponding muscles, bones and nerves - of James Maki, age 59. Mr. Maki's face was severely injured after falling onto the electrified third rail at a Boston subway station in 2005. In May 2009, he made a public media appearance and declared he was happy with the result. This procedure was also shown in the eighth episode of the ABC documentary series '' Boston Med''. After that procedure was successfully completed, the
Defense Department A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divided ...
awarded a $3.4 million grant to the hospital in December 2009 to fund five face transplants, according to Col. Janet Harris, director of the Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine Research Program for the Army Medical Research and Material Command. On 22 March 2011 Pomahač performed the first full face transplant in the United States (and third in the world, after full face transplants in Spain and France) on Dallas Wiens, 25, who was injured by an electric shock that removed his face. Pomahač led the team of physicians, nurses and anaesthesiologists for more than 15 hours to replace Mr Wiens's nose, lips, facial skin, muscles of facial animation and the nerves that power them to provide sensation. Two other patients are already on the list for other operations funded by the Defense Department. They are Mitch Hunter of Indianapolis, an Army veteran who was in a car crash after his Army stint, and Charla Nash, a Connecticut woman who lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids in 2009 when she was mauled by a chimpanzee.


Appearances

Pomahač has been a keynote speaker at the Congress of Future Medical Leaders (2014, 2015, 2016).


References


External links


David Wiens given first full face transplant in the US
at Herald Sun
First public appearance of Dallas Wiens after the operation
at Al Jazeera {{DEFAULTSORT:Pomahac, Bohdan 1971 births Living people Czech plastic surgeons People from Ostrava Palacký University Olomouc alumni Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic)