Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Ivan George Camilleri, MD FRCS plast

2005; Elsevier BV; Volume: 58; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.bjps.2004.12.013

1465-3087

David S. Soutar,

History of Medical Practice

Ivan Camilleri was appointed Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Canniesburn Plastic Surgery Unit in Glasgow in April 1999. He tragically died following a very short illness on the 9th August 2004 at the age of 39 years. Ivan was born on the 30th January 1965 in Gozo. Even as a youngster he proved to be exceptionally gifted. By the age of four he could read, write and spell in both Maltese and English. He had an insatiable appetite to learn and became easily bored when not stimulated. He had a curiosity unrivalled in children of his age and difficult to satisfy. He would play with anything mechanical or moving that was around the house. He would watch green-backed lizards in the garden, catch one with a blade of knotted grass, gently stroke it, feed it and watch its movements and reactions. His interest in animal life was to develop throughout his schooling to the extent that at one time he was very keen to become a vet. He excelled at school particularly in English and Physics completing his O-levels when only 14 years of age and his A-levels prior to finishing Junior College. At 16 he went to University in Malta to study medicine. Even as a 1st year student he haunted the Accident and Emergency Department of the hospital learning surgical techniques. One of his medical colleagues recently wrote telling me that Ivan as a 1st year medical student taught her how to suture and that she still remembers the admiration that this evoked in her. Ivan graduated in 1988 and his first jobs in surgery were at St Luke's University Teaching Hospital in Malta. He came to the United Kingdom at the end of 1991 and worked in General Surgery in Benenden Hospital Kent before joining the general surgical rotation in Newcastle. His first training post in Plastic Surgery was in Nottingham and this was followed by a return to Newcastle where he progressed from an SHO being appointed Specialist Registrar in March 1994. He carried out his SpR training in Newcastle before moving to Canniesburn Hospital in Glasgow to undertake his final year training with particular interest in head and neck surgery. His curiosity as a child never left him and he was always desperately keen to learn new techniques and to absorb new ideas. He undertook a student elective to Michigan in 1993 and a visit to the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston USA in 1997. He returned to the MD Anderson in 1998 as a Fellow in Microvascular Reconstruction before taking up his Consultant post in Canniesburn in 1999. As a Consultant Ivan joined the Head and Neck Team. His particular interest in oncology and in the management of facial paralysis brought with him a fresh approach and enthusiasm. In addition, he had exceptional manual skills being equally happy in both excision and reconstruction of complex head and neck defects. He was an expert Microvascular Surgeon a lesson to all wanting to learn ergonomics. Even in his short working time he made a great impact on Canniesburn and its service and was adored by his patients. He had an easy going manner but often a twinkle in the eye behind his spectacles illustrating an almost wicked sense of humour. He was an excellent colleague who has been a personal miss to me particularly in the Head and Neck Service. He was a man who could not stay still but had to advance. His English Teacher had told him that ‘a person can follow two paths: that of the baser nature, going down hill-when a man becomes less-than-nothing, or else the alternative which is going uphill, hard and difficult; where a man listens to his conscience and is always looking upwards where there is always a bright light beckoning’ Ivan was always looking upwards to progress the specialty of Plastic Surgery. That his career should be cut so short is a tragedy for Canniesburn and Plastic Surgery as a whole. He leaves behind to mourn his loss his wife Helen and children Hannah, Beth and Sam, his Mother Louise, his brothers Christian and Joseph and his sister Nadine. It is difficult to accept the loss of such a dynamic young Plastic Surgeon and to wonder at what he might have achieved in a longer life span. That said Ivan made an invaluable contribution to Plastic Surgery in his teaching, training and most importantly in the legacy to the patients whom he treated so successfully.