The destiny of an ace: Algimantas Otanas Narakas (1927–1993)

A complete history of brachial plexus surgery could not be written without the inclusion of Algimantas Narakas. Not only did he define the fundamentals, he also imagined its future development. This year, 2013, marks the 20 anniversary of his death. However, the Narakas Club, which bears his name, continues to keep his heritage very much alive. Algimantas Otanas Narakas was born on March 23, 1927 in Kaunas to an aristocratic Lithuanian family. His father, Juzoas Narakas, was a former commander in the Air Force serving as a Deputy, and later as Home Office Minister in Lithuania. With such a family history, one would have thought young Algimantas’s destiny was sealed. However, all went wrong one day in 1937 on a dormant WWI battlefield when, as an 11 year old boy, Nakaras was playing with a hand-grenade that exploded, severely wounding both of his lower limbs [1]. Algimantas, bleeding, but standing erect, and fearing a severe punishment, hid his wounds from his nursemaid. He could not have foreseen that his doing so would make him live in exile for a substantial portion of his young life. Chronic osteomyelitis of the left tibia and the right hip subsequently developed, and Nakaras was sent to undergo heliotherapy in the Swiss Alps (Figure 1). However, neither the sun, nor the altitude, nor the quietness of the sanatorium could heal the boy. His stay lasted for ten long years: he was unable to use his legs properly, but he was safely away from the tumult of WWII. Thus, his time was spent concentrating on developing intellectual reflexion and handskills. His flesh had yielded to his disease, but his mind and spirit thrived, thanks to his imagination. His daily routine changed abruptly when Fleming discovered the first antibiotic [2]. Within a few days time, 10,000 units of penicillin had cured him of his disease. It was in 1947, at the beginning of the Cold War, that he left the sanatorium,