Reconstructive pioneer Jack Mustardé, MD, dies at 94
Jack Mustardé, MD, internationally renowed plastic surgeon and honorary member of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, died in Tetbury, England, at age 94.
Dr. Mustardé's illustrious 60-year career included training under Sir Harold Gillies, MD, and Sir Archie MacIndoe, MD, and overseeing the first plastic surgery hospital in western Africa, from fundraising to its construction.
Dr. Mustardé joined the British Army in 1940 as an eye surgeon and subsequently developed techniques for eyelid reconstruction to prevent veterans' eye prostheses from falling out, as well as techniques to remedy ear protrusion, according to London's The Daily Mail. He also was a prisoner of war during World War II, and upon his released published The Sun Stood Still, which has been acknowledged as the first World War II POW account written by a former prisoner. He also wrote three plastic surgery books - Repair and Reconstruction in the Orbital Region (1966); Ophthalmic Surgery Up to Date (1970) and Plastic Surgery in Infancy and Childhood (1971).
Dr. Mustardé shifted his focus to plastic surgery after the war to meet the reconstruction needs of injured veterans, moving from Nottingham, England, to Glasgow, Scotland, where he practiced for 37 years and expanded the local hospital's surgical unit to include dental and maxillofacial conditions, as well as children's congenital deformities.
According to The Daily Mail, Dr. Mustardé retired in 1991 at age 75 but agreed shortly afterward to participate in a medical mission to western Africa. In Ghana, he found scores of patients with myriad reconstruction needs - but not one plastic surgeons who had established a practice in the impoverished nation. After toiling for days, Dr. Mustardé attended a goodbye reception held for the physicians by Ghanian President Jerry Rawlings, at which Dr. Mustardé accepted the president's invitation to return to Ghana to continue his work. About a decade later, Rawlings provided half of the funding to build a 75-bed hospital, with Dr. Mustardé providing the other half through a charity he launched for the effort called ReSurge Africa, The Daily Mail reports.
Dr. Mustardé, who was appointed Officer of the British Empire in 1995 and published his final book, Faith, Hope and a Miracle, in 2005, retired in 2006. He was preceded in death by his wife, Maisie.
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