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Paolo Aglietti, MD ITALY
President, 2007–2009
PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE
My wife and I visited Paolo Aglietti in his country home in Montecatini in fall 2012. It would be our last encounter since he left us shortly after in April
of 2013.
The 6th ISAKOS Congress in Paolo’s home town Florence was one of my favorites. Who could not love the Capital of the Renaissance Period
in Tuscany? Who did not try to understand why some people are called “Renaissance Man”? Who did not dwell in history at the Congress location, the Fortezza da Basso,
a Medici Fortress? How could a better place have been selected than Florence? I remember how I stayed three weeks in Tuscany, since EFORT and ISAKOS followed each other, with a one-week pause.
This Congress was more than just participants and exhibitors; it was a real Society highlight. But now is our time to remember the man behind ISAKOS in Florence.
For Paolo and his wife, Chiara, that year did not carry a good star.
2007
She fell ill and left him and Paolo also fell ill. He struggled with ups and downs of difficult therapies for another seven years until he succumbed to disease. During these years he stayed in his country home, only meeting his intimates and few other people.
What can we say about our inability to steer destiny? All that remains to us is the memory of our friends who had to leave without being asked what they had achieved. Never was there the right moment.
I am proud to have promoted
Paolo Aglietti to step in the ISAKOS Presidential line. He was probably the best linked and internationally known Italian Orthopaedic Surgeon in our field, initiated with his stays at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York in the seventies. In 1979, he was appointed Associate Professor at the University of Florence, Professor of Orthopaedics and Traumatology in 1990 and Chief of the Orthopaedic Clinic in 1996.
He was a remarkable scientist; his presentations and his literature were sharp as a razor, and his spectrum of interests and knowledge was broad. His presence in and investment for ISAKOS brought the Society forward. Still today we all regret that he had to leave so early. But then, we keep fond memories in our hearts and minds.
In the end Paolo Aglietti was a Renaissance Man. Once during a visit with him and Chiara in Florence he cited the entrance verses of “The Inferno” out of Dante’s Divina Commedia:
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,ché la diritta via era smarrita.
When I had journeyed half of our life’s way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray.
– Roland P. Jakob
On behalf of Paolo Aglietti, MD
2007 – 2009
2009
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