In Memoriam Prof. Dr.med. sci. Alexander Potapov
It is difficult and painful to talk in the past tense about someone still so wholly present in the Neurosurgical Community, especially of Global Neurotraumatology, now that Prof. Alexander Potapov, an outstanding world-known neurosurgeon, scientific director of the NN Burdenko National Medical Research Center of Neurosurgery, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has sadly passed away. In these moments when only deafening silence can truly express sadness, I try to find the right words that embody what Prof. Alexander Potapov meant to us, the Members of the Euroacademia Multidisciplinaria Neurotraumatorlogica. Not only did he offer the theory of primary and secondary brain lesions, the conceptual approaches to the classification and treatment of focal and diffuse craniocerebral injury, but he also shaped reconstructive and minimally invasive surgery of TBI consequences and complications with scientific and technological content, deepening the research in the plasticity of the injured brain. He was a virtuoso with a vision, unparalleled dedication and intuition, knowing exactly how to inspire collaborators with the passion for knowledge and desire to put said knowledge into the best possible practice. Through his efforts, countless patients knew an amendment to their suffering. And through his character, Prof. Potapov taught us how to commit ourselves- body and mind- to the betterment of others, not just the ones in our medical care. Prof. Potapov was a great tutor of an exceptional neurosurgical school that was, is, and will remain a shining beacon for innumerable future generations. He was also a physician who could identify with and, may I say, personified the school he built and nurtured with unmatched professionalism, a school whose fame is not in small part owed to his efforts and scrupulous thinking. And this all took place in a period when history was wrought with uncertainty and the search of a defining identity. Nevertheless, Prof. Potapov managed to successfully entangle tradition with contemporaneity, as he understood it was the only way to move forward.
To our minute EMN Community, Prof. Potapov was not only a supporter but also a valiant promoter, recognizing the importance of a multidisciplinary group of experts since he too was a specialist ICU anesthetist who turned into a top neurosurgeon with an inclination towards neurorehabilitation. The EMN Congresses of Moscow in 2001 and Sankt Petersburg in 2013 will always be remembered fondly, as the environment, hospitality, and common focus made us feel like a veritable borderless family. I have no way of knowing if and how this will come to be, but should this congress ever return in flesh and blood, it will certainly have a session commemorating Prof. Potapov.
I hope that today we could not think of ourselves as leading Prof. Potapov on his last journey, but that he is still steering us in the same direction he has done for the last 20 years of EMN, a path that he had painstakingly cobbled towards a luminous future. The cobblestones may have been in part solid sacrifice and nearly inhuman effort, but they were also joined by kindness, compassion, determination, experience, and the desire to be good not just to oneself, but to all those around.
As for us, after raising our lowered heads from piety and grief, we have an obligation to look unwaveringly forward and do everything in our own strength to raise new landmarks for both the present and future of neurosurgery. Only then will the memory of Prof. Alexander Potapov be truthfully honored.
Prof. Ioan Stefan Florian
President EMN
