In Memoriam of Associate Professor Jiří Kozák, MD, PhD

Assoc. Prof. Jiří Kozák, MD, PhD, the man who has influenced several borderline specialties by his work, left us on 11 December 2018.

He was born on 24 November 1937 to a family of doctors and this has determined his further carrier. After his graduation from a high school in 1956, he was accepted for dentistry studies at the First Medical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague. After graduation in 1956, he worked as a dentist and he was sent to Vysoké Mýto. Then he worked in Prague 7. He passed his specialty exam from dentistry in 1968. Breakthrough in his professional carrier was the moment, when he was accepted to work at the Maxillofacial Surgery Unit of the Central Military Hospital Prague, Střešovice, in 1969. There he found his domain and interest for the specialty. He completed the studies of general medicine – graduated in 1972, passed the final exam from maxillofacial surgery in 1973 and under the direct lead of the head of the department Professor Kufner, who was Burian’s pupil, he was engaged in the development of reconstructive methods in the area of the face and neck. Thanks to his measureless invention, abilities and diligence, he moved the possibilities of the specialty a significant step forward. He was one of the first to use free flaps and vascularized bone grafts for reconstructions. By his contribution the department became a sort of a center of reconstructive surgery of the face and neck within the whole country at that time. He utilized his interest in this topic also in 1983 when he presented his candidate thesis and he was awarded a degree of associate professor in 1992. Another important shift in his professional carrier was the year 1993, when he became the head of the Pediatric Stomatology Department of the Second Medical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, Motol. There, apart from the develpoment of his own specialty, he started close cooperation with the Department of Neurosurgery with Professor Beneš, mainly in the treatment of craniofacial anomalies. He used his experience also during his work at the Department of Plastic Surgery of the University Hospital Královské Vinohrady and Department of Plastic Surgery in Bulovka. Together with major specialists from borderline specialties including ENT and neurosurgery, he established a group for skull base surgery and shifted his endeavor in this direction. In 2007, after reaching the age limit, he ends his activities as a head of the Pediatric Stomatology Department. However, this was not the end his work efforts. He continues to utilize his experience and inventions at the neurosurgery and plastic surgery units, as well as he partially returns to beloved Střešovice.

He presents many lectures about his experience and publishes at home and abroad. Mainly his lectures are valued and admired by the specialists. He actively works in the board of the Society of maxillofacial surgery and he is also a member of the editorial board of Acta chirurgiae plasticae for a certain period of time.

Assoc. Prof. Kozák, MD, was a kind, humble and modest man, with empathy to patients, helpful to colleagues with willingness to help and share his experience. He was also a right and scrupulous man. In 1994 at the time of summer holidays he let himself to be smuggled to besieged Sarajevo and there, in the center of a war, he used his experience to treat war injuries. He was able to eliminate the great physical and mental burden, to which he was exposed, by sport and social activities. He played football with colleagues to high age, he was a great skier and fellow who did not spoil any fun. He enjoyed the successes of his daughter Sabina, also a doctor, and of his two grandsons.

Assoc. Prof. Kozák, MD, was a type of doctor, who was not satisfied with the development of his own specialty, but tirelessly looked for routes to cooperate to extend our knowledge for the benefits of patients and the whole medicine. Honor to his memory.

Pavel Voska, MD

Assoc. Prof. Jan Měšťák, MD, PhD