Farewell to Dr. András Huszák (1954-2023)

Dear Friend, Dear Colleague, Member of our Company’s Leadership Team, Treasurer!

We stand here in disbelief as we bid our final farewell to you, who have abruptly and prematurely ended your earthly journey. We find it difficult to accept, simply cannot believe that you have left us. Tomorrow, when we try to call the familiar number from memory, there will be no one to answer. We won’t receive your selfless assistance with our professional queries, nor can we invite you to spend the evening together, chatting cheerfully or comforting each other. Many of your colleagues and myself, including those who are just realizing it now, will miss what you brought to our everyday earthly lives as both a person and a professional – to quote my dearest poet: you made us children again. As an experienced physician who has witnessed many tragedies, the tears well up in my eyes once more as I think of you. Sometimes, unbidden sounds emerge that are not easily silenced.

When I think of you, who departed at the same age as my father once did, a quote from our childhood comes to mind: „It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Those who knew you understand that you always lived by this principle, approaching your tasks, your duties, and the people around you with heartfelt empathy.

We met as adults, at my former and current workplaces, at the beginning of my professional career, where you were already putting the finishing touches on the building blocks of your expertise. From our first conversations, a sympathetic bond formed, leading to a lifelong friendship spanning 30 years. Alongside our shared and unwavering professional interests, human connections also formed, which, although established in adulthood, became as selflessly strong as those rooted in childhood. From the outset, I learned from you, both in terms of your professional knowledge and your approach to dealing with people:

I always relied on your expertise, complemented by professional experiences abroad and self-education, prioritizing patient care and the clinic. And every colleague who turned to you for guidance could rely on this. We all knew it: the respect and gratitude felt for you brought so many of your colleagues here. Behind your modest but resolutely held opinions, there was always a well-founded knowledge. Your patient-centered, synthetic, biological approach to treatment made your work unique. Thus, beyond your dental training, you also practiced refined general medicine. And with this perspective, you were always among the pioneers, innovating consistently throughout your life. This was evident when you were still a hospital doctor at the Szent Rókus Hospital, as well as when you treated patients at your prestigious clinic in Buda. However, you never let go of your connection to the hospital, supporting the few hospital doctors with your presence. But we often teased each other about being „inside or outside” the system! You generously used your connections to help me attend clinical professional training with one of Europe’s most renowned professors at that time, so that I could bring a new perspective to our work at home.

Your relationship with your colleagues and members of our company was legendary. In the clinic you built with hard, persevering work, your colleagues, including newcomers to the field, preferred to come, but never to leave.

But alongside this, one could sense the reserved humility of your inner world behind your always cheerful, proactive, industrious, good-humored, outward-facing demeanor. You, the polyglot musician, perhaps feared the end of our earthly existence. And so, you didn’t pay enough attention to yourself alongside your profession. For if you had been a little more selfish with us, perhaps… maybe… But you couldn’t. And when I thought you had likely overcome your illness and lay jokingly on the neighboring empty bed in your ward, waiting for you to return home… your wife called a day later to tell us that you had left us, choosing the spirit world. You are surely in a good place now. Knowing you, you have found peace. This I believe and know.

But for us, we had to remain here: as friends, colleagues, coworkers, and patients, bidding our final farewell to you, bowing before you for the last time, then leaving the cemetery, immortalizing our shared memories, making you eternal in the annals of Hungarian maxillofacial surgery.

God bless you, Rest in Peace, Dear Huszi, our friend András!

Prof. Dr. Dr. Ferenc Oberna

In the following lines, you can read excerpts from an interview conducted with him in 2021, featured in the publication „Healing Superheroes – Rarely Seen Dads?” of KisMackó Foundation

Did you choose the medical profession because of your family background?

None of my family members worked in medicine. My mother was an accountant, my father was the head of a tool making factory. Only one of my great-grandmothers worked as a war head nurse, but there was no other health care professional in our family. simply developed a liking for this profession during high school already. However, at first, I wasn’t heading in this direction. I went to a technical high school and even though I was interested in natural sciences, and I double majored in technical drawing and French. During that time, I was already going to hospitals to work for a month in the summer and was getting acquainted with the profession.

Can you recall what ateracred you so much to this profession?

l was probably the surerecteorations and the atmosphere of the operating rooms that attracted me. Before I fully committed to the vocation, I consciously tested myself by working at the Surgery Clinic and then at the Transplant Clinic in an ICU operating room in the density of patient care. Instead of being dissuaded, these experiences pulled me even closer to a medical profession.

Did you apply to Semmelweis University in the end?

Yes, but I was only admitted on the third try. During that time, I attended the College of Health, where I graduated with a degree in Public Health Ep-idemiology. I experienced some difficulties in the first and second ears of university. My mother died when I was admitted, so it wasn’t an easy period. The desire to prove my skills to her greatly contributed to the fact that I completed college. Our class had a very strong community feeling; we were a cohesive team, went on trips and drank a lot of beer together.

Weren’t you afraid of a burnout?

I know the phenomenon, but I have never had to face it. Sometimes the economic and personal affairs of the practice are difficult as it may involve working on weekends and besides that, I have been working as a forensic expert for almost twenty ears now. Because of all this I graduated from the University of Law later. It wasn’t easy while working but I succeeded.

Did you work as a classic dentist?

Only for the first few years but I soon changed to oral surgery exclusively: jaw and salivary gland surgeries, bite disorders (malocclusion), cleft palate and harelip surgeries among others belong to my main scope of activity. There are lots of patients so I don’t do dental work anymore.

When did you start a family?

I got married a year after graduating, my wife and I were classmates, but we only started dating during our last year of studies. My wife specializes in Orthodontics and she does a great job.

Do you have any hobbies?

I don’t have much time but I really like gardening. If I have time, I’m mooning away in our garden, I’m digging, I’m planting, also it’s an activity that you can do any time and you can stop it whenever you need to, because there is always something to be done. We always travelled a lot in the winter and in the summer, as well. Obviouslv, in the recent period we were not able to do so, but we hope to have the opportunity again soon.

What did you absolutely wish to pass on to your kids?

Humanity, the appreciation of others. We didn’t persuade them to choose any specific profession, not even to graduate from university. We wanted them to have a profession they love and find fulfilling. The cherry on top was when two of our children became doctors and that now we can work together in the office today. It feels really good to pass our experience on to them.