Doc. MUDr. Jan Měšťák , CSc.

* 1944

  • "This is where the parents should be, supporting [the child] in a positive way. My mum supported me in a positive way by hitting me with a wooden spoon and breaking it. But I think otherwise, that's a nice word for the child, to guide them in a cultured way... I know how many children.... Say, a mother is holding a child, a pretty mother, and I can tell by the child's face what person the child is... like you can tell if a dog is good or not. Then the husband comes in, likely jealous because you can see it in him - the type who actually destroys this lovely good woman and the baby is harmed by it. It's like a picture, really. I'm absolutely convinced it works like that; the woman sometimes can't take it."

  • "If someone takes bribes and you prove it, they'll take their license away. It was terrible. It was crazy. They were the ones who took bribes; I was a little tickled. To embarrass them with their particular... way of doing things. And then I'd apologise because I felt sorry for them, which is usually how it goes: I'd take somebody down and then I'd... I'd apologise. Because the person who does that is maybe genetically conditioned, maybe something else that they need. I have been repeatedly asked to join a political party. I remember that even Rath, whom I knew a long time ago, came to me once and said that I would be... Even Paroubek wanted me to be... I was not in any political party. I had been, but that was a long time ago. I was in the Party [the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]. It was not for my own sake; it was to protect the professor who was a non-partisan. I was a person who had his say among young people - and I could support him. Even so, I was elected to the academic senate post-1989 in secret elections and so on. Because they knew what my convictions were."

  • Full recordings
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    Praha, 12.01.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 01:57:54
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
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If a woman is beautiful, what more does a man need?

Jan Měšt'ák in 2022
Jan Měšt'ák in 2022
photo: Post Bellum

Jan Měšt’ák was born on 26 August 1944 in Prague where he grew up. During the Protectorate, his father Jindřich Měšt’ák worked for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film company and made films with Lída Baarová who was a mistress of Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany. After the nationalisation of the film industry in 1948, he worked as the head of publicity. Jan Měšt’ák’s mother Anna was employed as a payroll accountant, first at Bílá Labuť and later at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (ČSAV). Jan Měšt’ák says he was a rather naughty boy with bad grades for conduct. He was also an all-round talented athlete, especially a volleyball player. At the age of fifteen, he entered a vocational secondary school - mechanics for precision instruments. In 1963, he entered the military service and joined the volleyball team of the Czechoslovak People’s Army Dukla Kolín. He graduated from specialised two-year school for workers. In 1966 he passed the admission exams to the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University. He focused on plastic surgery. He was certified in 1972 and then joined the hospital in Most. Two years later he was recruited as an assistant at the Clinic of Plastic Surgery of the 3rd Medical Faculty of Charles University where he worked for more than twenty years. Before the Velvet Revolution he was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia; after the revolution he refused any offers to become involved in politics. Since 1997 he has worked at the plastic surgery department of the Bulovka Hospital in Prague; that same year he was involved in the establishment of the Esthé private clinic of aesthetic medicine in Prague. He also worked as a teacher of plastic surgery at the 1st Medical Faculty of Charles University. He is the author of several professional publications and numerous professional articles and the holder of several awards. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Czech Medical Chamber, the Scientific Committee of the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic (MHČR), the Chairman of the Accreditation Commission for Plastic Surgery of MHČR and a member of the Examination Committee for attestation examinations in the field of plastic surgery at MHČR.