Pavel Pafko is one of the most prominent figures in Czech medicine. He has spent much of his career at the Third Department of Surgery of the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, and Motol University Hospital in Prague, where he currently serves as Emeritus Head of Department and is a highly respected and popular lecturer among medical students.
He is the founder and pioneering figure of the hospital’s lung transplantation programme. In 1996, he performed surgery on President Václav Havel’s lung tumour, and in 1997, together with his team, carried out the first lung transplant in the Czech Republic.
Born in Bratislava, a father of three daughters, a teacher of thousands of medical students, and a mentor to hundreds of young physicians, he has received numerous honours, including the Medal of Merit (2013) and the Arnošt Lustig Award (2020).
Photo credit: Richard Klíčník
