Sylvie Opatrná MD, PhD
November 9, 1959 - February 4, 2020
Professor Sylvie Opatrná MD, PhD, was a prominent personality of Czech Nephrology, an expert in peritoneal dialysis. She was born on November 9, 1959 in Rokycany, in Czechoslovakia and died on February 4, 2020 in Pilsen, the Czech Republic. After finishing high school in 1979 she started medical studies and successfully graduated from the Charles University Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, in 1985. After graduation she joined as staff member the 1st Department of Internal Medicine of the Faculty Hospital and the Charles University Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen. At that time, that Department was led by Professor Karel Opatrný Sen, MD, DSc.
From 1988 to 1995 Sylvie Opatrná was physician at the 1st Department of Internal Medicine of the Faculty Hospital in Pilsen. In cooperation with her husband, Professor Karel Opatrný Jr., she established a program of peritoneal dialysis that under her leadership became the largest in the Czech Republic. In 1995 she became the Head of Peritoneal Dialysis Unit at the 1st Department of Internal Medicine of Faculty Hospital. Peritoneal Dialysis Unit where she trained not less than fifty doctors and ninety nurses who spread the method over the country. At the same time she served as a lecturer (1995–2002), Associate Professor (2003–2010) and Full Professor at the Charles University Medical Faculty and Teaching Hospital in Pilsen until her premature death in 2020. At the Charles University she served as Vice-Rector for Long Life Education and Equal Opportunities (2010-2011); Scientific Board Member of the Charles University Pilsen (2009-2018); Member Ethic Committee of the Teaching Hospital Pilsen (2012-2020) and as Guest-lecturer at the Institute for Postgraduate Education of Physicians and Pharmacologists in Prague (1996-2020). She served also on the Board for Doctoral Theses in Internal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen (2003 -2020) and in the Accreditation Commission for Specialized Education in Nephrology of the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic (2011-2020).
Professor Sylvie Opatrná was Councillor (2006-2020) and General Secretary (2008-2010) of the Czech Society of Nephrology; Councilor of the International Association for the History of Nephrology (IAHN), (2010-2013). In the last IAHN Congress in Larisa, Greece (September 2019) she was re-elected to the IAHN Board. She was a Member of the Czech Society of Internal Medicine, Czech Society of Transplantation, International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis, European Renal Association- European Dialysis and Transplantation Association and of the American Society of Nephrology.
In the death of Professor Sylvie Opatrná the Medical Society in Pilsen, the whole Czech and Slovak Society of Nephrology as well as the International Society of Nephrology have lost a professionally prominent personality.
Sylvie will survive forever in the hearts of her daughters, Veronika and Sylvie. They were with their beloved mother until her last breathing. In her life Sylvie had also to overcome a personal tragedy, the death of her husband, Professor Karel Opatrný Jr, internationally recognized expert in nephrology in 2006. After husband's death, she devoted all her attention to her daughters both successful physicians, and to her university duties. It was this difficult period, but she was successful in 2010.
Sylvie Opatrná will be remembered forever, not only as a prominent nephrologist but also as a good and close friend of many Czech and Slovak nephrologists and also of many outstanding foreign nephrologists.
In the death of Professor Sylvie Opatrná the Medical Society in Pilsen, the whole Czech and Slovak Society of Nephrology as well as the International Society of Nephrology have lost a professionally prominent personality.
Sylvie will survive forever in the hearts of her daughters, Veronika and Sylvie. In her life Sylvie had also to overcome a personal tragedy, the death of her husband, Professor Karel Opatrný Jr, internationally recognized expert in nephrology in 2006. After husband's death, she devoted all her attention to her daughters both successful physicians, and to her university duties. It was this difficult period, but she was successful in 2010.
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