Biography
Dr. Kazanjian was born in Turkish Armenia on March 18, 1879. To escape the Armenian genocide, he came to the United States in October 1895. He settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, and took a job in the local wire factory. It was at the mill that Dr. Kazanjian first displayed the natural dexterity that would serve him so well in the field of plastic surgery.
Eventually he decided to try for a career as a dentist, and in 1902 was accepted by Harvard Dental School, qualifying in 1905. He was happily married and successfully running his own dental practice when the First World War broke out, but he volunteered to join the Harvard Medical Corps, posted to a huge tented hospital complex in northern France. There he began to treat some of the worst injuries suffered in trench war-fare - jaws, noses, cheeks and skulls shattered by bullets and grenades. Working under primitive conditions in makeshift hospitals near the battlefields of France Varaztad H. Kazanjian exhibited humane concern combined with innovative medical procedures that established his reputation and marked his subsequent career as a founder of the modern practice of plastic surgery.
Read more about this topic: Varaztad Kazanjian
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