What Do You Know about Cosmetic Surgery? A Talk by Dr. Philip Antiba

Beauty!... the utmost that man aspires to!...

He seeks it in himself...

and he seeks it in those around him!...

He is forever eager to discover it...

longing to gaze upon it... and thirsting to drink at its springs!...

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How many times has gloom filled my soul at the sight of a girl whose features of beauty were blotted out, and the charms of her face disfigured, by a cruel black stain squatting stubbornly on cheek or brow — enough to bring heartache upon its owner every time she looked at herself in the mirror, or the figure of some beauty appeared to her in the distance...

How many times have I sighed in pity over a man... the fingers of whose hands were drawn up and stuck one to another through an abnormal birth, or after a burn that befell him by fate and destiny, so that his fingers were crippled and became incapable of any work... and there he is, idle and helpless, and the threads of hope that bound him to life snap of a sudden, and he plunges to the depths, dust-covered and shattered...

But science did not stand with folded hands before this man or that girl. Its guardians were quick to roll up their sleeves; they set the mind to work in creation and invention, and set nimble fingers to experiment and practice, until they reached a very far stage indeed — one at which they could proclaim with full voice:

"Noses to order!.. Eyes to order... Graceful fingers to order... etc... etc..."

Yes — thanks to these diligent men of science it has become possible for us to replace any member of our body with another, "to order," exactly as the motorcar makes use of "spare parts"...

But here we knew nothing of this advance in science and progress in medicine... so that whoever was struck with such infirmities and disfigurements had no choice — if he was a man of wealth — but to make for Europe or America in search of someone to straighten what was crooked in his nose or shattered in any of his members...

And if he was poor, there was nothing for him but to hold his peace in bitterness, while the forces of rancor, envy, and resentment fermented within him, till he became a man torn by every kind of anxious fancy, eaten away by every sort of psychological complex...

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...Until, this year, the Lebanese heard of a young Lebanese physician who was the first to storm this arduous field of medicine... I say "arduous" because the specialist in it must first hold the ordinary medical degree, then work at specializing in surgery for three years, adding to them four years of specialization in "cosmetic surgery"... not to mention that "cosmetic surgery" demands a surpassing deftness in the work, a refined taste, and the capacity to understand every kind of temperament and the factors that surround it — factors which are very often obscure and hard to read...

Our young physician is "Dr. Philip Antiba," a young man of thirty-five... His eyes ripple with an uncommon intelligence that draws you at first glance and keeps hold of you in the glances that follow... He speaks unhurriedly, but with confidence and assurance... as though his words were grains from his heart which he fears to squander or lose, for he is careful of every word — indeed of every letter...

And the young physician set about telling me of the profession he loves!...

He told me of those years he spent bent over his books, or sunk in the operating room among the dead, the sick, and the wounded...

He told me of the result he reached and the victory he carried off... He is among the few who have managed to knock at this door and succeed in passing through it — not only here, but in America itself... for the number of cosmetic surgeons there does not exceed three hundred and fifty...

Then he told me of the many operations he has performed for a company of wretched, innocent souls whose bodies were disfigured for no sin of their own... so fate willed it,

and there is no turning back its will...

These physicians alone — and Dr. Antiba is one of them — have dared to stand firm in the face of fate and defy its will...

Dr. Antiba went over with me a set of telling photographs, showing the disfigurement just before the cosmetic operations and after them, and then the delicate, arduous stages that were passed through... Some of these operations run through something near eight stages, or small operations...

Here is the picture of a girl in the prime of youth; over her face there reigns a cast of mute gloom, and from her eyes there escapes the shadow of a painful bitterness and an unruly sorrow... I gaze at her face... it is a face that lacks nothing of beauty, but for that humped, arched nose which dominates the face, spoiling its artistic beauty and blotting out its radiant charm...

Then Dr. Antiba shows you another photograph of the same girl, her nose set right... and you cannot but stand amazed at the transformation that has taken place — not in the nose only, but in the whole face... The mute gloom has quit the fair face, and in its place has come a luminous brightness; the shadow of bitterness, so cruel before, has melted away, and in its place have come a shadow of hope and a sweet smile...

And here is the picture of a child whose upper lip stood out, horribly cleft, as if it were the lip of a hare — or so they call it in the world of medicine... In the first picture his face appeared a frightful deformity.

And here is another photograph of the same child, taken after the operation... How beautiful he is here! The lip has returned safe to its proper place... and has brought everything else back to its nature... even the radiant smile has come back to take its seat upon that lip... after being estranged from it for long years...

And here is the picture of a patient whose leg was afflicted with cancer... The disease had to be rooted out of the patient's leg, without leaving the disease any opening to ravage once more...

And it fell to Dr. Antiba to restore the leg to the natural state it had been in before the operation... So he took a strip of the skin that covers the patient's back and grafted it over the excised patch of his leg... The operation succeeded, and the leg returned to its natural shape, as though nothing had happened!

I noticed that most cosmetic operations are performed on noses — humped, or large, or misshapen — and I let Dr. Antiba know what was passing through my mind, whereupon he said:

"I do not deny that the cosmetic operations performed on noses are many, especially for the ladies, but they do not overshadow the other cosmetic operations... There are the cosmetic operations performed for those struck by burns and by terrible collisions... To this day I am still performing operations of every kind for those who were burned during the celebrations of the Prophet's birthday held three years ago, in which many Lebanese were injured..."

I said:

"Can you create the nose or the lip or the breast exactly as the 'customer' wishes?..."

He said:

"I can, of course, make exactly the thing the patient — or the seeker of beautification — wants, but I do not always do so... I look at the shape of the face or the body, and then try to give the shape that suits it better than any other... Moreover, I try to study the psychology of these patients, and if I find that they will never be content with the result, whatever it may be, I do not perform the operation for them at any price...

"A month ago a girl from Jordan came to me in her father's company, asking me to perform an operation on her nose... She carried under her arm a heap of cinema magazines; scarcely had she sat down when she began opening them one after another, showing me the nose she wanted. I saw that the girl lacked maturity, for she believed that no sooner would the operation be done than she would be as beautiful as the film stars... And I saw that the operation would only add complication upon complication in her soul, and that it would in no case satisfy her; and I soon told her father the truth...

"A few months later the girl's father came back to me, asking me to perform a second operation for her. He told me that he had taken her to Italy, where they operated on her, but she was not pleased with the result, and she is now in constant gloom. For all his insistence, I refused once again to perform the operation on her..."

I shook the young physician's hand in farewell... full of praise for the nimble, skillful fingers, for that great heart, that piercing eye, and that encouraging smile... which give hope back to despairing souls and bring gladness into despairing hearts... so that the smile dawns on faces after long dejection... and light is kindled in hearts after the darkness of despair!