Wirginia Maixner
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Wirginia June Maixner (born 1963) is an Australian
neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, ...
and the director of neurosurgery at the
Royal Children's Hospital The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH), colloquially referred to as the Royal Children's, is a major children's hospital in Parkville, Victoria, Parkville, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Regarded as one of the great C ...
in
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, Australia. She is known for having performed the first auditory brainstem implant on a child in Australia in 2007, and later having separated the conjoined twins, Trishna and Krishna in 2009.


Early life and education

Maixner grew up on
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
's
northern beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the ...
. Her father was a window dresser and her mother, a public servant. Inspired by her aunt who was Australia's first female flying doctor, she pursued a career in medicine and surgery. Maixner attended Sancta Sophia College, University of Sydney, and in 1986 graduated from the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
's School of Medicine with a
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education trad ...
. She became the third woman accepted into the
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) is the leading advocate for surgical standards, professionalism and surgical education in Australia and New Zealand. Known by its common acronym RACS, it is a not-for-profit organisation, supp ...
four-year neurosurgery training program. In the early 1990s, while half-way through her training, she became pregnant with her daughter. She remained in the program and became the first person to be granted
maternity leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and "paternity leave ...
by the
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) is the leading advocate for surgical standards, professionalism and surgical education in Australia and New Zealand. Known by its common acronym RACS, it is a not-for-profit organisation, supp ...
. Maixner went on to complete her training as a single parent and later spent two years in Paris and Canada gaining international hospital experience.


Career

Maixner was appointed to the position of Director of the Royal Children's Hospital Neurosurgery Department in 2001, becoming one of the youngest neurosurgery department heads in Australia and the first female head of neurosurgery at the Children's Hospital. From October 2001 until July 2004 Maixner served on the Victorian Surgical Consultative Council, a special purpose council established in 2001 by the then- Minister of Health, John Thwaites, which reports to the Minister for Health and analyses, studies and reports on potentially preventable surgical deaths in Victoria, with the aim of improving the safety and quality of surgery in Victoria. In 2006, Maixner was credited with performing "ground-breaking" surgery when she operated on a three-year-old girl to successfully stop seizures caused by a rare genetic condition. Maixner told media at the time that the surgery was of the same complexity as open-heart surgery. On 16 May 2007, Maixner worked with Rob Briggs, the medical director at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital's
Cochlear Implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted Neuroprosthetics, neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for imp ...
Clinic and using "pioneering technology" they performed the first auditory brainstem implant on a child in
Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...
. At the time, the surgery was hailed as an advancement that "could pave the way for revolutionary advances in medicine". Between 30 and 31 August 2009, Maixner presented at the XIV World Congress of Neurological Surgery in
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 ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
as a faculty member of the "Pediatric Neurosurgery: An Overview with Sub-specialty Applications" program and as a panelist on the "Chiari Type I Malformation in Children" discussion panel. On 16 and 17 November 2009, Maixner led a team of 16 neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, and other specialist medical staff at the Royal Children's Hospital in the 32-hour "groundbreaking surgery" to successfully separate three-year-old
Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
i
conjoined twins Conjoined twins, popularly referred to as Siamese twins, are twins joined '' in utero''. It is a very rare phenomenon, estimated to occur in anywhere between one in 50,000 births to one in 200,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in south ...
, Trishna and Krishna. The twins were found in 2007 by two Australian Aid volunteers in
Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...
's
orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...
in
Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...
and brought to Australia by Moira Kelly and the Children First Foundation for life saving medical treatment, which involved a series of operations in January, February, March, May, October, and November 2008 and January and August 2009, in preparation for the final separation in November 2009. Maixner had performed four major operations on the twins to separate and close shared
blood vessels Blood vessels are the tubular structures of a circulatory system that transport blood throughout many animals’ bodies. Blood vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to most of the tissues of a body. They also take waste an ...
and insert tissue expanders and prior to the final surgery, she gave the twins a 25 percent chance of surviving the operation, a 25 percent chance of dying and a 50 percent chance of suffering "catastrophic"
brain damage Brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating trauma-induced damage. A common ...
, but without surgical intervention, both children would die. On 19 November 2009, Maixner told the press that Trishna had woken from the medically induced coma. Krishna began to wake up on 20 November 2009. On 21 December 2009, five weeks after the surgery to separate the twins, they were released from the hospital. On 26 November 2009, Maixner and other members of the medical and surgical team who cared for Trishna and Krishna were honoured with a civic reception hosted at Government House in Melbourne by Governor of Victoria,
David de Kretser David Morritz de Kretser (born 27 April 1939) is an Australian medical researcher who served as the 27th Governor of Victoria, from 2006 to 2011. Early life and medical career David de Kretser was born in British Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka ...
and Premier John Brumby. Maixner and fellow Royal Children's Hospital neurosurgeon Alison Wray sat for Australian artist Raelene Sharp in December 2009. Sharp's portrait of the surgeons was submitted to the Australian portrait competition, the
Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...
. The competition was judged in March 2010 and carries a A$50,000 prize. Maixner was also featured in a photo shoot by ''
The Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known simply as ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Are Media in Sydney and founded in 1933. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before bein ...
'' in December 2009. In 2023, the Royal Children's Hospital awarded Maixner the Elizabeth Turner medal for the excellence she demonstrated in clinical care. As of 2023, Maixner continued to practice neurosurgery, and has expressed that her greatest achievement at the Royal Children's Hospital is helping to grow a cohesive unit, based on respect, that nurtures people to become the best that they can be.


Selected works

* Maixner, Wirginia J. (Editor), and Cinalli, Giuseppe (Editor), Sainte-Rose, Christian (Editor), ''Pediatric Hydrocephalus'', Springer, USA, 9 November 2004, * Maixner, Wirginia; Kornberg, Andrew; Harvey, Simon; Nash, Margot; "Neurological condition", in ''Paediatric Handbook'', Wiley-Blackwell, 5 August 2005, * Maixner, Wirginia J. (Editor), and Özek, M. Memet, (Editor), Cinalli, Giuseppe (Editor), ''Spina Bifida: Management and Outcome'', Springer, USA, 7 July 2008, * Maxiner, Wirginia; Skelton, Ruth; Isaacs, David; "Sinusitis-induced subdural empyema", ''Disease in Childhood – The Journal of the British Paediatric Association'', December 1992 * Maixner, Wirginia; Sekhon, Lali H. S.; Morgan, Michael K.; Besser, Michael; "Controversies in the Management of Brainstem Cavernous Angioma: Report of Two Cases", ''Journal of Surgery'', 1992 62(10) 763–767 * Maixner, Wirginia; Caruso, Denise A.; Orme, Lisa M.; Neale, Alana M.; Radcliff, Fiona J.; Amor, Gerlinda M.; Downie, Peter; Hassall, Timothy E.; Tang, Mimi L.K.; and Ashley, David M.; "Results of a phase 1 study utilizing monocyte-derived dendritic cells pulsed with tumor RNA in children and young adults with brain cancer", ''Neuro-Oncology'', 2004 6(3):236-246 * Maixner, Wirginia; Aziz, Azian Abd.; Coleman, Lee; Morokoff, Andrew; "Diffuse choroid plexus hyperplasia: an under-diagnosed cause of hydrocephalus in children?", ''Pediatric Radiology'', Volume 35, Number 8, August 2005 * Maixner Wirginia; Heggie AA; Holmes A; Greensmith A; Meara J; Low P; "Complete correction of severe scaphocephaly: total vault remodelling with occipital elevation", ''International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery'', 2005; 34(Supp 1–029.1):57. * Maixner, Wirginia, "Hypothalamic hamartomas—clinical, neuropathological and surgical aspects",''Child's Nervous System'', Volume 22, Number 8, August 2006 * Maixner, Wirginia; Haloi, Achyut K.; Ditchfield, Michael; "Mucocele of the sphenoid sinus", ''Pediatric Radiology'', Volume 36, Number 9, September 2006 * Maixner, Wirginia, and Stargatt, Robyn; Rosenfeld, Jeffrey V.; Anderson, Vicki; Hassall, Timothy; Ashley, David; "Intelligence and adaptive function in children diagnosed with brain tumour during infancy", ''Journal of Neuro-Oncology'', Volume 80, Number 3, December 2006 * Maixner, Wirginia; Gonzales, Michael; Dale, Susan; Susman, Marleen; Nolan, Prudence; Ng Wai, Hoe; Laidlaw, John; "Dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor (DNT)-like oligodendrogliomas or Dnts evolving into oligodendrogliomas: two illustrative cases", ''Neuropathology : official journal of the Japanese Society of Neuropathology'', 2007;27(4):324-30 * Maixner, Wirginia; Josan, Vivek; Smith, Paul; Kornberg, Andrew; Rickert, Christian; "Development of a pilocytic astrocytoma in a dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor. Case report", ''Journal of Neurosurgery'', 2007;106(6 Suppl):509-12 * Maixner, Wirginia; Stargatt, Robyn; Rosenfeld, Jeffrey V.; Ashley, David; "Multiple factors contribute to neuropsychological outcome in children with posterior fossa tumors", ''Developmental Neuropsychology'', 2007;32(2):729-48 * Maixner, W. and Poomthavorn, P., Zacharin, M., "Pituitary function in paediatric survivors of severe traumatic brain injury", Archives of Disease in Childhood, February 2008; 93: 133–137


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maixner, Wirginia 1963 births Living people Australian neurosurgeons Medical doctors from Sydney Sydney Medical School alumni Australian women medical doctors Australian medical doctors 20th-century Australian non-fiction writers 20th-century Australian women writers 21st-century Australian non-fiction writers 21st-century Australian women writers Australian women surgeons