In the autumn of
2002,Dr.Urs Burki, a 57 year old plastic surgeon from Geneva, conducted an
open-air surgery in front of a camera on top of the 3500-metre
Längflügletscher in the Swiss canton Wallis. "Back to nature," was his
motto which was supposed to convey the idea of a positive, harmonic
surgery experience. It was also meant to demonstrate the positive impact
of sterile alpine air; the patient, the surgery team, the surgery table as
well as the entire equipment had to be lifted to the top of the mountain
by a helicopter.
In 1993,the Swiss physician
had conducted a facelift operation on a private villa's terrace in Cologny
overlooking the Geneva Lake. He has conducted surgery on board a yacht, in a
specially prepared apartment, and in front of a concert audience. All of
this because of the fresh air? Not because of publicity? No, the surgeon
wanted to draw public attention to ambulant surgery in local anaesthetics.
Journalists just happened to be there every single time. According to the
German Medical Association's professional code of conduct, surgery "in
transit" is not allowed. Maybe no such law applies in Switzerland?
The German media have
applied the title "beauty pope" to an ENT specialist. His creativity is
enviable: On December 31, 1999,he took a helicopter and landed in front of
his clinic to make a "millennium nose". Shortly afterwards, after the
successful operation, the helicopter lifted him up into the sky again - he
returned to his well earned skiing vacations. TV cameras followed him
constantly.
The same "pope" announced in a
TV talk show he had conducted 30.000 surgeries himself. If that were the
case he must have become "Facharzt" by the age of 25. It also means that he
conducts 3-4 surgeries EVERY day, including weekends, holidays, days of
congress meetings. Medical faculties do not offer arithmetic as an
individual field of study. It was in the same TV show that he was asked
whether he had ever experienced any complications during a surgery. "Toi,
toi, toi - I have always been lucky," was his reply. 30.000 times luck in a
row. Mind you: this refers to him -not to his patients.
The editors of a Saturday night
TV show (8 p.m., ARD, "Jürgen von der Lippe Show") called me recently:
"Would you conduct surgery adding wrinkles to somebody's face?" "Why?," I
asked with astonishment. "It would be great if we could show this in our
show. "I wanted to know "Do you have a candidate for this?" They did not.
"But maybe you know somebody." - "I haven't heard such a request in the last
25 years. But you never know, perhaps somebody will show up at my clinic
next week," I said calling off the alarm.
Three years ago, a
worldwide surgery was conducted by the ISAPS secretary general. The BBC
inquired whether plastic surgeons had ever 'uglified' a patient. Apparently
there was a candidate who had felt burdened by too much beauty and was
transformed into an ugly duckling. Nobody was able to confirm this story.
Even as an inquiry by the BBC - this is a step too far.
Yet we do know of an
example from the Middle Ages: Sacred Edda the younger, also known as Hidda,
cut off her nose in order to cut out any distraction from her devotion to
Jesus Christ. We have not heard of similar cases since.
In the United States, the
extreme makeover of patients has been tolerated, or even supported by
professional associations. The American TV-import "The Larry King Show" has
been watched and appreciated by German audiences for years. Today the
"SWAN"-series is taking its course in the US: Patients are being transformed
into copies of their personal TV and film favourites. Members of the plastic
surgery community are shocked: It is not our intention to create humanoid
falsifications. What happens if plastic surgery becomes a subject of
discussion among the heads of Roncalli Circus, Circus Krone, etc. during
their annual meeting in Monte Carlo: Who will be the first one to present
cosmetic surgery as a circus attraction?
D.Panfilov
