IvoPitanguy.com

PROFESSOR IVO PITANGUY

	"The quest for plastic surgery emanates from a transcendent finality. It is the attempt to reach harmony between body and spirit, emotional and rational, aiming to establish an internal balance which allows the individual to find harmony with his own image and the universe that surrounds him." Professor Ivo Pitanguy.

Pitanguy´s background
Ivo Pitanguy was born in Belo Horizonte and graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro School of Medicine by the end of the 1940s. During his childhood and adolescence he was very fond of books, painting, poetry, nature and sports. Pitanguy inherited his passion for arts from his mother, Maria Stael Jardim de Campos Pitanguy, a sensitive and cultured person who gave him one brother, Ivan, and three sisters – Ivette, Yeda Lúcia and Jacqueline. Pitanguy's interest in medicine came only after he graduated from high school. He was influenced by his father Antonio de Campos Pitanguy, a general surgeon who used to say, “Medicine gives the satisfaction of being useful. The doctor brings hope.” Moved by a desire to defeat illness, Pitanguy started to build his own destiny.

The art of living

Ivo Pitanguy and Fernando Sabino

Pitanguy´s humanistic vision and his broad love of knowledge were essential to his formation as a doctor such as anatomy, physiology and biochemical, among other subjects. A loving family and solid friendships with the group of Belo Horizonte as Fernando Sabino, Paulo Mendes Campos, Hélio Pellegrino, etc., shaped the foundations of a personality marked by the pleasure of being with his fellows and by a permanent curiosity. “I learn with life each passing day. I think that the sad aspect of dying is to stop feeling this wish of always learning a little more. I try to harmonize my life between surgeries, classes and conferences without giving up the pleasure of living,” says Pitanguy.

Pitanguy´s Family

Ivo Pitanguy and Family

Pitanguy shares his pleasure for life with his family, whom he affectionately calls “Pitanguy´s tribe.” Married to Marilu for over 50 years, Pitanguy’s love of sports helped him forge a strong bond with his children, Ivo, Gisela, Helcius and Bernardo. During the years, he spent every free moment as a doctor intensively with his family at his house in Gavea (RJ), in his island at Angra dos Reis (RJ) or in Gstaad, Switzerland. Now that his children are grown up, Pitanguy follows with pride the growing of his grandchildren – Ivo, Antonio Paulo, Mikael, Pedro and Rafael.

A friend of nature

Ivo Pitanguy and bird at
Big Pig’s Island

Since his days as a child, Pitanguy understood the importance of respecting nature. He felt the need to be in contact with it and take care of animals, some quite exotic, such as Jibóia, a Brazilian snake which he used to carry over his neck while walking in the streets of Belo Horizonte. “I never had any trouble getting a sitting place in the crowded streetcars,” said Pitanguy. As a matter of fact, the name Pitanguy in tupi-guarani´s language means “Children’s River.” “The direct contact with nature is simply vital for my existence, my well-being and my harmony,” certifies Pitanguy. It was this ecological feeling that motivated him to create a sanctuary on his island (Porcos Grande) at Angra dos Reis (RJ), where since the 1970s he has preserved several species that are near extinction

The search for knowledge

Ivo Pitanguy e Professor John Longacre

By the end of the 1940s, plastic surgery was not yet a renowned specialization in Brazil and young surgeons came across a number of difficulties when learning how to become plastic surgeons. These obstacles motivated Ivo Pitanguy to participate in the selection of the Institute of International Education. He was granted a scholarship and went to Cincinnati, Ohio where he became a surgeon resident of Professor John Longacre at Bethesda Hospital (1948-1949). At the same time he attended the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and the plastic surgery department of Dr. John Marquis Converse, New York.

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