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ABOUT FACE
Sofola and Lopez honored as new ABFPRS diplomates for facial plastic surgery skills honed to treat wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This year, the ABFPRS honors two new diplomates, Doctors Ife Sofola and Manuel Lopez, who are serving in the U.S. military and caring for soldiers wounded in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
These two fine surgeons remind us that our specialty has many of its roots in the battlefields of World War I. Pioneers like Sir Harold Gillies, Lee Cohen, and Ferris Smith started to improve early techniques used to reconstruct facial features torn apart by war. Unlike World War I however, 90 percent of the soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan escape death, but not the trauma of disfigurement caused by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) and sophisticated automatic weapons.
Doctors Sofola and Lopez, whose reconstructive operative experience in the military was reviewed as part of ABFPRS certification requirements, have done exemplary reconstructive work. Their surgical skills have enabled many soldiers with calamitous head and neck injuries to do an “About Face” and return to life in the Armed Forces or civilian arena.
Dr. Sofola came to the United States from Nigeria at the age of 17. He graduated from Emory Medical School in 1993 and completed his otolaryngology residency at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. He went on to receive additional facial plastic surgery training with Drs. Ira Papel and Patrick Byrne at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2005. Dr. Sofola serves as a Commander in the United States Navy and operates at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where part of his work includes creative use of free tissue transfers and tissue engineering, as well as advanced facial prosthetics for disfigured veterans. In addition to his work at Bethesda Naval, Dr. Sofola conducts humanitarian missions to Nigeria to operate on children who suffer from cleft palate and craniofacial abnormalities.
Dr. Manuel Lopez graduated from medical school at the University of Louisville in 1998 and finished his otolaryngology residency at the University of Cincinnati. He then went on to a facial plastic surgery fellowship with Drs. Dean Toriumi and Regan Thomas in 2004. Doctor Lopez, a Major in the United States Air Force, returned from a tour of duty in Iraq in 2005, where he operated on wounded soldiers at the Balad Air Force Base, forty miles north of Baghdad. Dr. Lopez relates that his experience with facial rejuvenation procedures allowed him to be inventive when handling tissue and moving tissue planes in order to reconstruct facial defects caused by IEDs.
Both of these devoted doctors have stressed that it is an honor to provide top-notch medical care for our men and women in the Armed Forces. We would argue that no medical specialty is more honorably distinguished than facial plastic surgery, when our ranks include two surgeons whose worthy mission has been to fight back death and disfigurement for those who serve our country. We will not forget your service, your dedication, and your compassion.
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