Dr. Frank Papay, chairs the Cleveland Clinic’s Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute.
Ohio University alum Dr. Frank Papay’s plastic surgery work to restore a young woman’s face was featured in a National Geographic article headlined “The Story of a Face: Inside the groundbreaking face transplant that has given a young woman a second chance at life.”
Papay earned a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University in 1975. He earned an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve and an M.D. at Northeast Ohio Universities Medical University.
A veteran plastic surgeon, Papay chairs the Cleveland Clinic’s Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute.
Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Joanna Connors wrote the National Geographic story, as well as a condensed version at Cleveland.com: “Katie’s face: Where a bullet and an overdose intersected, Cleveland Clinic doctors gave new life.”
Papay studied biomedical engineering before going to medical school; he learned to “work from failure,” anticipating potential problems and devising solutions. “Everyone thinks that we’re the cosmetic guys, the hairdressers of surgery, and we do face-lifts and breast augmentations,” he said. “But in plastic surgery and now face transplants we’re innovators—we’re fix-it guys.”
Read about the procedure at Cleveland.com. Follow Katie Stubblefield’s three-year journey to a new face in photos in National Geographic.
Papay received a Medal of Merit from Ohio University in 2016.
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