OBITUARY

OBITUARY

We are sad to announce the sudden loss of two or our most senior and revered lacrimal surgeons, Professor Jeffrey Jay Hurwitz (Canada) and Professor Sergey Shkolnick (Russia).


Bruno Fayet

We would like to share the very sad news of the sudden death of Bruno FAYET on Friday August 18th, 2022.

Bruno FAYET, MD, FACS, was undoubtedly among the very best French lacrimal surgeons we have known.

First resident, in the eighties, at Paris University Hospital during five years, he then attended a four-year fellowship at the Hôtel-Dieu under the leadership of the well-known Professor Yves POULIQUEN, Member of the Académie française.

During this time, his lacrimal mentor was Doctor Jean-Antoine BERNARD with whom he continued to collaborate for many years.

Then Bruno FAYET greatly improved his field by teaching and training numerous French and International ophthalmologists. Every year, he organized, together with a team, lectures at the Hôtel-Dieu on oculoplastic and lacrimal surgery.

He was invited all over France and Europe to participate in post-graduate programs. In the past years, beside his private practice, he was consultant at the Cochin Hospital in Paris.

In parallel to his educational engagements, he modified, improved, and popularized lacrimal surgery techniques in endonasal DCR as well as in lacrimal intubation. He contributed, with his ENT friend, Doctor Emmanuel RACY, to standardize the endo-nasal DCR in France, and created some new devices, worldwidely used in lacrimal surgery, mainly indicated in congenital lacrimo-nasal duct obstructions of children.

He was involved in many scientific Societies: member of the Parisian Society of Ophthalmology (SOP), vice-president of the French Society of Ophthalmology (SFO), on the Board of the French Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (SOPREF), and full member of the European Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ESOPRS).

Author of more than seventy-five referenced papers (as well as one hundred unreferenced ones) in lacrimal topics, he was also the co-author of several books among which the 2006 French Ophthalmic Society’ Report, written with Professors Alain DUCASSE, Jean-Paul ADENIS, Jean-Luc GEORGE and me (J.-M. R.), devoted to lacrimal diseases, and participated to the report of Ophthalmic Emergencies edited by Professor Jean-Louis Bourges.

He was, most of all, extremely friendly, open minded, generous with his knowledge, very faithful with his friends, always full of humor and humanity. He will be greatly missed.


Jeffrey Jay Hurwitz

Professor Hurwitz, International Society of Dacryology and Dry Eye (ISD-DE) Councillor, passed away on 4th February 2022 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada, where he had been the Ophthalmologist-in-Chief for over three decades. He was the author of one of the original books on Lacrimal Surgery which has survived the test of time:  Jeffrey Jay Hurwitz. The Lacrimal System. Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, 1995

Professor Hurwitz was a keen teacher and academic, and always had time to listen and mentor ophthalmologists, especially in lacrimal surgery. He was a strong supporter of ISD-DE, having been one of the original founders.  We had hoped to see him in London in June 2020 but the Meeting was cancelled due to Covid-19.

One of my best memories of him was telling me in Greece 2017 how he had stopped running when he was around 70 years old, but kept fit by roller-blading as it was a less intensive impact sport. He inspired people around him to believe they could achieve their potential and enjoy life fully.

 


Sergey Shkolnik

Lacrimal surgeon Sergey Shkolnick sadly died on 22nd March 2022 in Russia, from a short illness. He was an ophthalmologist and oculoplastic lacrimal surgeon in Cheboksary since 1988, at the Regional Branch of the Federov Institute. His daughter Galina worked closely with him and will continue his professional legacy.

 

Professor Shkolnick was a keen supporter of ISD-DE and attended the European Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ESOPRS), making close professional friends. He had contributed to the forthcoming international book on Watering and Dry Eyes to be published by Thieme. He wrote many peer reviewed papers on lacrimal surgery, mainly in the Russsian literature, as ГС Школьник. He promoted endo-nasal DCR. Shkol’nik GS, Shkol’nik SF, Krasnozhen VN, Pashtaev NP Cold-Plasma Ablation Use in Endoscopic Endonasal Dacryocystorhinostomy. Ophthalmology in Russia . 2019;16(4):467-471. (In Russ.)

 

We all saw Sergey in 2017 in Greece at the ISD-DE Meeting, then in Kazan at the AMTEC Lacrimal Meeting in 2018, where I was fortunate to be invited. He was a wonderful person, hard-working, warm and generous and will be missed by his international friends and colleagues.

Sergey Shkolnick is seated on the right.

Jane Olver, ISD-DE

London, 3rd April 2022

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