Author: Richard C Schultz
Print length: 243 pages (87 illustrations)
Publisher: Bookstand Publishing
Publication date: December 12, 2013
ISBN-10: 1618635549
Dr. Schultz, former head of Plastic Surgery, and now Emeritus Professor at The University
of Illinois (CA), has written a memoir of his 37 years of a rather colorful career
advancing modern concepts in reconstructive plastic surgery, (i.e., new concepts in
post traumatic facial reconstruction, cleft palate repair, etc.) around the world.
These activities often put him in disadvantaged African, Asian and East European Communist
countries, sometimes culminating in life threatening events. While serving as a Fulbright
scholar with Prof. Tord Skoog in Uppsala, Sweden in 1960, he was recruited by the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to observe communist connections in this socialist
country. This led to a visit with the Surgeon General of The Soviet Army who was advocating
a secret but ineffective method of treating 3rd degree thermal burns in soldiers,
attempting to hasten their return to duty.
Schultz describes two potentially dangerous encounters with the Chicago underworld
involving plastic surgery, along with a night spent in jail over conflicting ethical
responsibilities.
His four books, numerous journal publications, and leadership positions in multiple
professional societies served to attract foreign plastic surgeons to visit him in
Chicago. Among these were Ivo Pitanguy (Brazil), Paul Tessier and Yves Gerard Illouz
(France), Bong Soo Baik (South Korea), Namik Baron (Turkey), as well as numerous German
and Japanese maxillofacial surgeons, many of whom stayed in his home and, on occasion,
were taken to his summer home in Michigan.
Illustrations of a variety of surgical procedures performed by the author, including
his approach and involvement in separation of craniopagus twins, significantly enhance
the text.
