A Doctor and His Life's Mission - Karl Schuhmann in India

Rheinische Post, 5.9.2018

The doctor Karl Schuhmann (50) loves life. On his profile on the social network Facebook, the cosmetic surgeon enjoys making jokes. In the evening sun of Mallorca, he is pictured in a lounge bar, captioning the snapshot with: "Today's consultation at the harbour." He was a guest at the Star Press Media Night on the island. Many guests also visited him when he recently held a celebration at his private practice in Düsseldorf. Severino Seeger, who won the TV contest "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" in 2015, sang and mingled. Elderly and well-heeled Düsseldorfers also enjoyed themselves in his rooms.

Yet Karl Schuhmann has another side: "During my practical year at Aachen University Hospital, my interest in the skin and its conditions developed. Time and again I reached the point where many procedures in dermatology can only be performed surgically by plastic surgeons. For this reason, I began my specialist training as a plastic surgeon in 1995." Since 2005 he has worked as a consultant at the Evangelisches Krankenhaus Hattingen, and in 2016 he established a private practice for plastic and aesthetic surgery in Düsseldorf. Many challenging procedures await him today: the most serious cases include complex reconstructions following breast cancer. "Medically and emotionally, this is a great challenge." The operations frequently last between eight and ten hours and require very high levels of concentration. For the women involved, it is an exhausting treatment.

His travels for Interplast are equally moving. This is an organisation founded in 1980 by plastic surgeons, modelled on an American initiative. Since then, Interplast has operated on people worldwide with malformations of the jaw and lips, cleft palates, severe burns, or war injuries. Anaesthetists, nursing staff, and plastic surgeons fly to the mission sites during their holiday time. Schuhmann: "Already during my specialist training I gained insight into the valuable work of the organisation. My immediate goal was to take part in various humanitarian missions." Among the most memorable experiences is the treatment of a young woman who had boiling water poured over her by her mother-in-law. "Because the burns had been left untreated, both arms had grown attached to her chest and neck. We released the scarring and performed several skin grafts. At the next mission, the patient came for her follow-up appointment very happy — she was able to move both arms freely again. Such moments are among the special experiences in my work."⇥Susanne Mendack