It was supposed to be half a year of life at most. “I wanted to do everything to stand behind the operating table again”
Three years ago, he was diagnosed with a rare form of myeloma, with an average life expectancy of six months. Right after that, COVID hit hard. After leaving the hospital, he did not even take a day off. He operates on children with gliomas and spinal cord defects. A year ago, he did not have the strength to climb the stairs and was qualified for a heart transplant; this year he climbed Szczeliniec Wielki. Prof. talks about the power of life. Stanisław Kwiatkowski, head of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University Children’s Hospital in Krakow.
Katarzyna Pinkosz, “Directly”: Professor, when we talked this morning, you were running for surgery. Who did you operate on today?
Prof. Stanisław Kwiatkowski: I operated on, among other things, a congenital skull shape disorder in an infant. It is caused by premature closure of the skull sutures. This means that in many cases the skull cannot grow – either in width or length. This is not just an aesthetic problem; this often disrupts brain development, which is why there are neurological indications for such treatments. In some cases, there is pressure on the optic nerves, which may even cause blindness, which is why there are indications for ophthalmological procedures. But there are also aesthetic reasons: children have crooked heads. I call them “children of the last bench” because they sit on the last bench at school, because other children often laugh at them because of the shape of their heads.
