Pavel Pafko is a Czech surgeon who, together with his team, carried out the first lung transplant in the Czech Republic in 1997.
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Pavel Pafko is a Czech surgeon and professor.[1] Pafko is 86 years old. [3] He is the emeritus head of surgery at Motol University Hospital. [3] In December 1996 he operated on the then president Václav Havel.[1] A year later he and his team carried out the first lung transplant in the Czech Republic.[1]
According to iDNES.cz, he led thousands of operations during his career, and in 2013 President Miloš Zeman awarded him the Medal of Merit.[1]
According to the rescuer Marek Dvořák, on Sunday 27 September 2026 a canoe capsized with Pafko on the Vltava; the crew of a passing boat, which included a pilot of the air rescue service helicopter, pulled him out of the river, whose water temperature was about 13 degrees, and the doctor was not injured. [4] Dvořák has worked since 2013 for the Zdravotnická záchranná služba Královéhradeckého kraje. [1] After the incident Pafko contacted Dvořák by telephone because he wanted to find out who had saved him. [1]
During the procedure he removed a lung tumour from him. [1]