MD, FCS (SA), FRACS, Sub-specialist in Trauma Surgery Frank(Franco) Plani is the Head of the Trauma Directorate, which incorporates the Trauma Unit and the Burn Unit, of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital and the current Chair of the Academic Division of Trauma Surgery of the Department of Surgery at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was born in Trieste, Italy, in 1954, where he obtained his medical degree from the University of Trieste in 1980. Prof Plani worked in Zimbabwe on an Italian cooperation program run by COSV (Coordinamento Organizzazioni Servizi di Volontariato, Coordination of Organizations of Volunteer Services of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affaires) from 1981 until 1984, and then he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa to train in General Surgery. After completing his registrar training at Chris Hani Baragwanath Acadenic Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital and Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, he obtained his Fellowship in General and Paediatric Surgery (FCS(SA)) 1992. His intention was then to re-join the Italian Cooperation and work as a volunteer at Ngwelezana Hospital, Kwa-Zulu Natal, but the General Surgical part of the Italian Program had been scrapped at that time. After working briefly at the Helen Joseph Hospital as a general surgeon, he was employed at the Trauma Unit of the Johannesburg Hospital from 1993 to 2006 as a Senior Specialist as well as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Surgery of the University of the Witwatersrand. He also started working at the NetCare Milpark Hospital Trauma Unit in 1993 as part of his Remunerated Work Outside Provincial Service (RWOPS), and he then developed another Trauma Unit at the NetCare Union Hospital in Alberton, in order to fulfill the needs of the south-eastern part of Gauteng Province and the Northern Free State and Mpumalanga. The 2 Units are the only Level 1 Trauma Centres in South Africa, as recognized by the Trauma Society of Southern Africa (TSSA) and provide care for the greatest majority of severe trauma and burns due to Injuries on Duty, covered by WCA legislation. He joined the South African Reserve Police Service in 1996, after losing a friend and colleague, Dr Stephen Ming Chi Pon, a newly qualified ENT Surgeon, who had been shot through the heart by hijackers just outside the hospital, on his operating table at the Johannesburg Hospital Trauma Unit, after a 10 hour battle against death. Soon after joining, and undergoing SWAT training with the SAPS, he became the Head of the Medical Unit of the SAPS, based at the Johannesburg Police Emergency Services (Brixton Flying Squad and anti-hijacking Highway Patrol) with the rank of Superintendent (Lt Col). He developed and taught a tactical first aid course for SAPS and Municipal Police Officers to enable them to provide life-saving interventions to each other and civilian victims before it was safe for civilian EMS to intervene. Over 500 SAPS, JMPD, TMPD and EMPD members were trained in these courses. He remained a SAPS reservist until the end of 2006, when he moved to Australia. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2007, in Australia, No 171943. He was the Chair of Trauma Surgery at the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, Royal Darwin Hospital, Northern Territory, Australia, and Professor at Flinders University Northern Territory Clinical School from 2007 to the middle of 2009, when he returned to South Africa. He was made Principal Specialist and Deputy Head of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital Trauma Directorate and a Senior Lecturer in the University of the Witwatersrand, in charge of developing the Disaster Preparedness Plan for the hospital. He was registered as a Sub-specialist Trauma Surgeon in 2008 with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. In 2013 he was promoted to Adjunct Professor in the Department of Surgery. He is in charge of disaster management of the Division of Surgery. He has worked as a mission surgeon for the International Committee of the Red Cross in North West Pakistan in 2009 and is on the ICRC mission list for future missions His main interests are surgical education, disaster management, new technologies for trauma surgery and surgical critical care. He is one of the 2 originators of the novel technology of REBOA (Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta), together with Dr George Oosthuizen from Edendale and Ngwelezana Hospitals and the University of Kwa Zulu Natal, since February 2017. Awards 2001: Certificate of Merit for “Rendering an unselfish and vital service to the police”, Police Emergency Services and Brixton Community Police Forum, Johannesburg, South Africa 2010: Certificate of Appreciation, from Department of Health and Social Development by Mrs J More, CEO CHBH and Mr E. Nkosi, Chairperson Hospital Board CHBH, for: “Recognition of services rendered to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital during the 2010 Soccer World Cup” 2018: Investiture with the title of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy) by the President of the Republic of Italy on 29 November 2017, received at the Italian Consulate in Johannesburg on 1 June 2018.