Right out of an Ian Fleming spy novel, a plastic surgeon, escorted by thug-like musclemen, is whisked off during the night to a secret underground bunker deep in the North African desert. Out of the shadows of a darkened room walks a well-known third world dictator. Dressed in a white Sonny Crockett sport jacket, the raspy voiced tyrant demands the doctor immediately perform facial surgery. Refusing anesthesia, because he fears assassination, the comical bully stops the procedure to eat a sandwich.
In the middle of the night, the doctor performs the surgery under the omnipresent and vigilant eyes of the despot’s most trusted henchmen. After the operation the physician is sworn to secrecy, handed an envelope full of cash and whisked out of the country.
The Clandestine Meeting in the Desert
In 1994 this is exactly the experience Brazilian plastic surgeon Dr. Liacyr Ribeiro had while giving a lecture in Tripoli, Libya. Eventually he would perform facial surgery on Libyan dictator Moammar al Gaddafi. In an interview with the Brazilian TV show Domingo Spetacular on March 25, 2011 the doctor said, “A Libyan official [identified as Mohamed Zaid] came up to me and said he wanted me to meet someone….” Later Zaid drove Dr. Ribeiro to a secluded house surrounded by armed guards. “Zaid and I were taken to a library located underneath a tent set up inside the house and there he told me that he wanted me to examine Gaddafi," Ribeiro revealed.
Gaddafi “…was different then…He was an extremely polite, intelligent, cordial and soft-spoken person who quickly told me what he wanted and why….he did not want the young people of his nation to see him as an old man," Dr. Ribeiro contended. Gaddafi wanted an immediate operation; however, Ribeiro tactfully informed the most feared dictator of the time that he would need a surgical team “and that takes time”, he insisted. Gaddafi allowed the doctor to reschedule the procedure for January 1995 (6 months later). The delay not only allowed the doctor to gather his team in Libya but also gave Gaddafi time to change the bunker. Ultimately, he provided the surgical crew “two fully equipped and very modern operating rooms, a gym and a swimming pool," Ribeiro recollected.
The Operation in the Bunker
Dr. Ribeiro suggested the dictator have a facelift; however, Gaddafi refused. “A facelift would be too noticeable,” the doctor recalled Gaddafi stating. He desired a procedure where the surgery would “remove fat from his belly [and] inject it into his wrinkled face,” the surgeon detailed. Yet, the procedure was limiting. "I warned Gadhafi that the effects of the operation…would last for about five years, that it had an expiration date…" Ribeiro maintained. Gaddafi did not care, "He said he would call me if he needed me to come back," Ribeiro claimed.
Discretion in the Room
Apparently, secrecy was far more important for Gaddafi. Dr. Ribeiro recalled on Domingo Spetacular that Gaddafi hired him because “Libyan surgeons were either incapable of doing what I did or too scared that he would die on the operating table." The leader made sure information about his operation was classified and demanded the four-hour surgery begin at 2 AM. Still fearing assassination Gaddafi "…insisted on local anesthesia saying he wanted to remain alert," the doctor added. Dr. Fabio Naccache, from Sao Paulo, stated he too was part of the team and performed a hair transplant on the Libyan leader as Ribeiro performed the facial surgery, according to Stan Lehman’s AP account on March 25, 2011.
After the surgery the medical team remained in Tripoli under the watchful eye of Gaddafi’s secret police for 10 days as Moammar recuperated in seclusion. “Afterward, Zaid handed me an envelope full of U.S. dollars and Swiss francs," the doctor remembered. "…it was more than I would charge for my services in Brazil," he added.
The Funny Side of Gaddafi
However, the doctor told Lehman that he was speaking out now, not for personal gain or vanity but because he wanted to give the world an insight into a man they knew little about. "Gaddafi is not looking very good these days," Ribeiro informed. "To let potential patients know that I operated on him would be counterproductive." Nonetheless, Gaddafi was a funny man, the doctor insisted. He was a man who stopped a surgery just because he was hungry. He was insistent that everyone take time out to eat. "Hamburgers were brought in for all and surgery was interrupted for several minutes while we ate," the doctor jokingly recalled.
But this is not the person the world knows today. Gaddafi has become an egotistical tyrant whose world is collapsing because he refuses the simple demands of a distraught people. He has become a ruthless devil that is not beyond murder in an attempt to maintain power: A hated tyrant the world loathes. However, his vanity is now but a small problem.
Frank W. Hardy - Frank has 36 years of airline experience navigating every ocean & continent. Flying 25,000 hours in 42 years presents a rare historical ...
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