Wirginia Maixner

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Wirginia Maixner
Born1963 (age 60–61)
Known for2007 performed the first auditory brainstem implant on a child in Australasia; 2009 separation of conjoined twins
Medical career
ProfessionDirector of Neurosurgery
InstitutionsRoyal Children's Hospital, Melbourne
Sub-specialtiesNeurosurgery
ResearchPediatric Hydrocephalus, Spina Bifida, traumatic brain injury, Neuro-Oncology, Neuropathology, Neurosurgery

Wirginia June Maixner (born 1963 [1] [2] ) is an Australian neurosurgeon and the director of neurosurgery at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. She is known for having performed the first auditory brainstem implant on a child in Australia in 2007, and later having separated the conjoined twins, Trishna and Krishna in 2009.

Contents

Early life and education

Maixner grew up on Sydney's northern beaches. Her father was a window dresser and her mother, a public servant. Inspired by her aunt who was Australia's first female flying doctor, she pursued a career in medicine and surgery. [3]

Maixner attended Sancta Sophia College, University of Sydney, [4] and in 1986 graduated from the University of Sydney's School of Medicine with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery. [5]

She became the third woman accepted into the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons four-year neurosurgery training program. In the early 1990s, while half-way through her training, she became pregnant with her daughter. She remained in the program and became the first person to be granted maternity leave by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. [6] Maixner went on to complete her training as a single parent and later spent two years in Paris and Canada gaining international hospital experience. [3]

Career

Maixner was appointed to the position of Director of the Royal Children's Hospital Neurosurgery Department in 2001, [7] becoming one of the youngest neurosurgery department heads in Australia and the first female head of neurosurgery at the Children's Hospital. [6]

From October 2001 until July 2004 Maixner served on the Victorian Surgical Consultative Council, [8] a special purpose council established in 2001 by the then-Minister of Health, John Thwaites, which reports to the Minister for Health and analyses, studies and reports on potentially preventable surgical deaths in Victoria, with the aim of improving the safety and quality of surgery in Victoria. [9]

In 2006, Maixner was credited with performing "ground-breaking" surgery when she operated on a three-year-old girl to successfully stop seizures caused by a rare genetic condition. Maixner told media at the time that the surgery was of the same complexity as open-heart surgery. [10]

On 16 May 2007, Maixner worked with Rob Briggs, the medical director at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital's Cochlear Implant Clinic and using "pioneering technology" they performed the first auditory brainstem implant on a child in Australasia. At the time, the surgery was hailed as an advancement that "could pave the way for revolutionary advances in medicine". [11]

Between 30 and 31 August 2009, Maixner presented at the XIV World Congress of Neurological Surgery in Boston, Massachusetts as a faculty member of the "Pediatric Neurosurgery: An Overview with Sub-specialty Applications" program and as a panelist on the "Chiari Type I Malformation in Children" discussion panel. [12]

On 16 and 17 November 2009, Maixner led a team of 16 neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, and other specialist medical staff at the Royal Children's Hospital in the 32-hour "groundbreaking surgery" to successfully separate three-year-old Bangladeshi conjoined twins, Trishna and Krishna. [13] The twins were found in 2007 by two Australian Aid volunteers in Mother Teresa's orphanage in Dhaka and brought to Australia by Moira Kelly and the Children First Foundation for life saving medical treatment, which involved a series of operations in January, February, March, May, October, and November 2008 and January and August 2009, in preparation for the final separation in November 2009. [14] Maixner had performed four major operations on the twins to separate and close shared blood vessels and insert tissue expanders and prior to the final surgery, she gave the twins a 25 percent chance of surviving the operation, a 25 percent chance of dying and a 50 percent chance of suffering "catastrophic" brain damage, but without surgical intervention, both children would die. [15] [16] On 19 November 2009, Maixner told the press that Trishna had woken from the medically induced coma. [17] Krishna began to wake up on 20 November 2009. [18] On 21 December 2009, five weeks after the surgery to separate the twins, they were released from the hospital. [19]

On 26 November 2009, Maixner and other members of the medical and surgical team who cared for Trishna and Krishna were honoured with a civic reception hosted at Government House in Melbourne by Governor of Victoria, David de Kretser and Premier John Brumby. [20]

Maixner and fellow Royal Children's Hospital neurosurgeon Alison Wray sat for Australian artist Raelene Sharp in December 2009. Sharp's portrait of the surgeons was submitted to the Australian portrait competition, the Archibald Prize. The competition was judged in March 2010 and carries a A$50,000 prize. [21] Maixner was also featured in a photo shoot by The Australian Women's Weekly in December 2009. [22]

In 2023, the Royal Children's Hospital awarded Maixner the Elizabeth Turner medal for the excellence she demonstrated in clinical care. [23] As of 2023, Maixner continued to practice neurosurgery, and has expressed that her greatest achievement at the Royal Children's Hospital is helping to grow a cohesive unit, based on respect, that nurtures people to become the best that they can be. [24] [25]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neurosurgery</span> Medical specialty of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system.

Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conjoined twins</span> Medical condition

Conjoined twins, popularly referred to as Siamese twins, are twins joined in utero. It is a very rare phenomenon, estimated to occur in anywhere between one in 49,000 births to one in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in Southwest Asia and Africa. Approximately half are stillborn, and an additional one-third die within 24 hours. Most live births are female, with a ratio of 3:1.

Keith Goh is a neurosurgeon from Singapore. Goh is known for his operations in separating conjoined twins with two known successful cases and a failed attempt in separating Ladan and Laleh Bijani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pediatric surgery</span> Medical subspecialty of surgery performed by pediatrics

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Dandy</span> American neurosurgeon (1886–1946)

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Fred J. Epstein was a pediatric neurosurgeon credited for the development of pioneering neurosurgical techniques to treat children threatened by brain and spinal-cord tumors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Teo</span> Australian neurosurgeon (born 1957)

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<i>Gifted Hands</i> Book by Dr. Ben Carson

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story or simply Gifted Hands is an autobiographical book about the success story of Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon and future politician, and his life going from a failing student to leading a team of surgeons in the first known separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head. Co-written by Ben Carson and Cecil Murphey, Gifted Hands was adapted into a film of the same name by director Thomas Carter in 2009. In the film, Dr. Carson was portrayed by actor Cuba Gooding Jr.

Moira Therese Kelly is an Australian humanitarian worker. In 2001, she was awarded the Order of Australia in recognition of her humanitarian service to both the Australian and international communities. In 2012, Kelly received the Victorian of the Year award and in 2003 and 2004, she was nominated for the Australian of the Year awards.

CURE Children's Hospital of Uganda (CCHU) is a specialized children's neurosurgery hospital in Uganda. It is a private hospital, owned and operated by CURE International. The hospital is also a teaching center in pediatric neurosurgery for Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Eben Alexander Jr (1913–2004) was an American academic neurosurgeon and a native of Knoxville, Tennessee. He is known for his notable education and training of neurosurgeons, his many recognition awards, and for his editorship of Surgical Neurology — An International Journal of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience from 1987 to 1994.

Benjamin Warf is an American pediatric neurosurgeon. Warf was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012.

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References

  1. ↑ "Online Computer Library Center" . Retrieved 10 January 2010.
  2. ↑ "Maixner, W. J. (Wirginia June) 1963-". WorldCat Identities. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
  3. 1 2 Stark, Jill (11 January 2009). "Queen of the Cutting Edge". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
  4. ↑ News and Events, Sancta Sophia College, November 2009
  5. ↑ "Sydney Medical School alumni". Medical Faculty, University of Sydney. Archived from the original on 8 October 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
  6. 1 2 Vasek, Lanai (9 January 2010). "Separating twins an epic achievement --- Australian of the Year". The Australian.
  7. ↑ "2001 RCH Year in Review" (PDF). Royal Children's Hospital. p. 4. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
  8. ↑ Rush, Jonathan (Editor), Victorian Surgical Consultative Council Inaugural Report, 2001-2004, Victorian Surgical Consultative Council, 2004
  9. ↑ The Victorian Surgical Consultative Council, Victorian State Government, Department of Health, 27 August 2009
  10. ↑ Critchley, Cheryl (28 October 2006). "Our medical marvels". Herald Sun.
  11. ↑ Stark, Jill (16 May 2007). "Small hole opens Jorja's mind to a sound future". The Age. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  12. ↑ "XIV World Congress of Neurological Surgery" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
  13. ↑ McArthur, Grant; Familari, Peter (18 November 2009). "Surgeons got through surgery to separate conjoined twins with coffee, music". Herald Sun. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  14. ↑ Jenkins, Melissa (18 November 2009). "Separation anxiety Marathon surgery success, but the battle isn't over yet How the operation was performed". Geelong Advertiser.
  15. ↑ "Aussie docs to separate conjoined wins". United Press International. 13 November 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  16. ↑ Betts, Marianne (14 November 2009). "My opportunity of a lifetime to help". 'Herald Sun.
  17. ↑ Betts, Marianne (14 November 2009). "Wirginia Maixner to embark with mixed emotions on operation to separate conjoined twins". Herald Sun. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  18. ↑ "Second twin slowly wakes". Geelong Advertiser. 21 November 2009.
  19. ↑ Lillebuen, Steve (22 December 2009). "Joy for twins' guardian". Illawarra Mercury.
  20. ↑ "After a twin miracle, team honoured". The Australian. 27 November 2009.
  21. ↑ Harris, Amelia (28 December 2009). "Artful doctors become new role models". Herald Sun. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
  22. ↑ Carbone, Suzanne (8 December 2009). "Bromley opens up his world with pictures". The Age. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
  23. ↑ "Awards and Scholarships". The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne. n.d. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  24. ↑ "Celebrating our women: Neurosurgeons Wirginia Maixner, Alison Wray and Juliet Clayton | RCH News" . Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  25. ↑ "These beautiful 'brainbows' are helping doctors treat tumours". www.abc.net.au. 12 August 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
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