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What Jackson’s Plastic Surgeons MissedAt the time Michael Jackson was shopping around for a plastic surgeon,
Ferdinand Ofodile was still working hard trying to convince his peers that there
is a different way to work on African noses. Had Ofodile, the second black man
ever to be honored with a fellowship of the American Society of Plastic
Surgeons, released his ethnic nasal implants then, the pop super star that many
love to love would be carrying a far more elegant face today. The Aesthetic Surgery Journal actually set up a panel of 4 ethnic nose experts not too long ago. The panel, which discussed via a conference call, included Ofodile and Jackson’s plastic surgeon Steve Hoeflin. At the forum, Ofodile observed that the nose would lose its supply of blood after several repeated surgical works, and much painting. He said as it is now, there is nothing reasonable that can be done to Jackson’s nose. Ofodile got his own fair share of requests from black superstars who wanted to look like White entertainers, as though the nose of the black man was some liability resting on the trenches of his face. As Ofodile was quoted in Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery many African Americans wanted “the same type of procedure done on Michael Jackson and they often bring photographs.” Apparently then not many people knew better. The Nigerian born plastic surgeon could not take it anymore. And the supply of such requests was not going to abate, as nose jobs became very popular among African Americans in the 80s. In more recent times, African Americans make up about 7% of patients seeking plastic surgery, and Latinos about 10%, conservatively. Once Ofodile conducted a random survey that showed that 40% of African Americans and 70% of Latinos surveyed would undergo plastic surgery. Ofodile said these were slender and very attractive people, but with parts of the nose being disproportionately large. According to him being from Africa and having “seen all the beautiful people, black noses and then coming here to read of the… nose as if something is wrong with it, it became apparent that we as black plastic surgeons had to let the other plastic surgeons know that black noses can be beautiful too.” When in 1982 he was brought in to head the Harlem Hospital Plastic Surgery unit straight from the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, Nigeria, Ofodile felt it was as if the black nose “was something that had to be changed in order to be acceptable.” Being Hispanics, Caribbean and African-Americans, man of Ofodile’s patients fitted well to his own African background. With a deep-seated understanding of the body features of black people, he knew what to do. But he also knew that to change the distorted views about black noses would require more than talking about it. “We had to conduct research and publish papers to show that the black nose is right and how to do rhinoplasty and get optimal results.” That resolve put Ofodile on familiar grounds. He is not new to the concept of struggle, transition and change. Born in Nnobi, in present day Anambra State, Nigeria, the young Ofodile had always wanted to be a healer of sorts since his boyhood days. He was galvanized right from then seeing how his grandfather and uncles practiced traditional African medicine. Later one of his uncles became a British-trained surgeon and so he got much closer to the idea of being a western physician. He grew up in Onitsha, where he attended the St John Catholic School for his elementary education and the prestigious Government College in Umuahia, from where he won a government scholarship and the African Scholarship Program of American Universities. Those awards made it possible for him to resume in 1963 at one of America’s top universities, Northwestern University, Chicago where he got his science degree and later his medical doctorate degree after graduating from Government College, Umuahia in 1962. By 1968 he graduated for medical school and embarked on the fellowship trail. His first port of call was Harlem Hospital, where he is today the Chief of Plastic Surgery. He was at Harlem and the Columbia Presbyterian Hospitals as a resident in general and plastic surgery for 6 years starting in 1969. He moved on to the well-known Mayo Clinic in 1976 as a fellow in plastic surgery and in 1977 he decided it was time to return to Nigeria to settle down. Ofodile had always wanted to affect the lives of his countrymen in Nigeria. He knew he wanted to be a surgeon after he beheld the mangled bodies of Biafran soldiers during the Nigerian civil war in the late 60s. He was concerned that no one was rendering help to these soldiers in dire need. He later chose the specialty of plastic surgery because he enjoyed the creativity involved. Ofodile had a more personally dramatic experience during the Biafran civil
war in Nigeria. Having met Caroline, his lovely wife in 1969 during a visit to
his Nnobi village, they chose to marry in the same year. But the war had
started, so they had to arrange an early morning wedding for 6:00 a.m. Before
the guns resumed booming and the shelling started flying around, the Ofodiles
had secured a convenant of love in a Catholic Church without much ado. “I remember Ibadan with mixed feelings in that the universities were deteriorating rapidly at that time, with very little support, “ he recollects with a tinge of dissatisfaction. He said the facilities were becoming decrepit, tools and drugs were becoming unavailable. According to Ofodile “it was difficult, not only to practice clinical medicine the way one was used to, but also to practice academically the way one had hoped.” The Harlem chief plastic surgeon said he sure gave the Nigerian situation, a “best shot.” Just 4 years into his UCH experience, the American College of Surgeons honored him with its fellowship. So he came to the US to accept the accolade. “ I came here to be inducted, and by serendipity, I met the group from Harlem, they were looking for a head of department for plastic surgery,” the professor of clinical medicine recalled. The Harlem group asked if he was interested. “I was hesitant, but on return to Nigeria, it was clear, so I accepted. The rest is history.” Part of that history was the fact that one of his patients at UCH who was oil-burnt died with an unborn child simply because the hospital lacked the supplies and equipment to save mother and child. Ofodile had wanted to help people in need. He trained for it and came this far, but seeing people just die for inadequate resources put to naught all he had prepared for. So he left UCH and bade Nigeria farewell in 1982, returning to Harlem Hospital Center, where he had done his residency, now as chief of plastic surgery. Added to his job at Harlem, Ofodile is also a clinical professor at the Columbia University and also Attending Surgeon at North General Hospital and Associate at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt, both in New York. He is the chairman of the Plastic Surgery Residency program and Associate Director of Surgery at the Harlem Hospital Center. In the rarefied world of plastic surgery, many experts do not have Ofodile’s peculiar background or his understanding of how to subtly and precisely restructure the black nose without causing further posture damage. Ofodile had figured out that what the African Americans were seeking was not for their noses to be ‘caucasianized’, but to have finer nasal features to match their faces. The first thing he did to save the situation was to ignite a revolution in plastic surgery studies, and rhinoplasty. According to him, “we did studies including going to the Museum of Natural History in New York here and study skulls from West Africa, from Europe and American Indian skulls in order to delineate the skeletal features of the black African noses.” All the while plastic surgery had always been seen through a Western perspective, but Ofodile distinguished the features of the African nose and brought new knowledge to bear on the literature. A professor himself, he established that there are in fact 3 types of African noses and his categories soon became standard used by many other plastic surgeons. His 3 categories are African, Afro-Caucasian and Afro-Indian. The understanding of these categories, according to Ofodile would “make it easier for surgical residents to make sense of diversity and avoid disasters.” Who knows what difference could have been made had these categories been established and well known before Michael Jackson’s case. Ofodile said his African-American patients who had African noses wanted him to help them with flat bridges and wide nostrils, while those with the other two categories sought his aid to change drooping tips or excise humps from the dorsum, ie the part of the nose extending from the bridge to the tip. So Ofodile, in most cases carved new tips, making the tips more defined and performed augmentations, which led to the increase of the size of the dorsum by grafting cartilage from other parts of the body, usually the ear. Later, other plastic surgeons began to agree with Ofodile that peculiar needs of patients ought to be considered. For instance, in 1993 he won the Chairman’s prize for the best paper presented at the 44th Scientific Conference of East African Surgeons in Maputo, Mozambique. Ofodile concedes that the majority of the people still think Caucasian is the standard of beauty and that looking like a Caucasian sells. But Ofodile seemed to have proven that by redefining what needs to be fixed in the noses of African Americans and Latinos through the invention of his ethnic nasal implants the handling of nose jobs for Africans and Latinos can become a truly lasting relish. Called the Ofodile Nasal Implants, the plastic surgeon designed what looks like a perfect remedy, which is now being embraced by patients. The implants are in two series. Series I, according to Ofodile, are for African-Americans and Hispanic noses with low but straight bridges. Series II, he says are for African-Americans noses with saddle shaped bridges. Essentially, the implants are “designed to achieve a more desirable and pleasing profile by augmenting the dorsum to dimensions that are more in concert with wider nasal tips,” he explains. Each of the two series come in three different sizes and are provided sterile. (See photos) Surgiform, the Ohio-based company with whom, Ofodile patented the ethnic implants, is now manufacturing them. Ofodile said the implants designed last year are now being mass mailed and marketed to plastic surgeons across the United States. Ofodile started thinking hard about designing those implants about 5 years
ago and got real serious sometime in 2001. “I contacted Surgiform and they were
quite interested,” he said. In 1997, he was the Organizing Chairman of the American Society of Plastic
Surgeons first Plastic Surgery symposium in Africa, held in Ivory Coast under
the auspices of the International Plastic Surgery Educational Fund. A
volunteering enthusiast, Ofodile was the vice president of the Board of
Directors, Reconstructive Surgery Volunteer Program of the American Society of
Plastic and reconstructive Surgery between 1995 to 1998 and in 2001. The MTV has also selected him as one of the plastic surgeons for its reality show “I want to be a celebrity” where surgeons will make volunteers look like a celebrity of their choosing through plastic surgical procedures. The program is expected to draw about 90 million audiences and is expected to run in September. As a plastic surgeon, nose jobs are however just one of his specialties; others include breast jobs among others. And his clients’ base is increasingly Latino and also blacks. The plastic surgeon is married to Caroline, a Columbia MBA trained accountant with the Bergen County Community College and together they have four children. Uchenna, the first born is now married and she is based in Nigeria where she works for ECONET. Ike, who is of the Columbia Business School, is the second born and first boy, before, Emeka, who works with ESPN and Nnamdi, a Columbia University sophomore. Without a doubt, the family is committed to Columbia, an Ivy League university, where Ofodile himself is a clinical professor. |
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