Who is Vera Gedroitz, the surgeon who revolutionized war medicine | Culture | Entertainment

There are two things that defined Vera Gedroitz: her passion for medicine and her revolutionary essence.

Who would have imagined a princess becoming obsessed with drugs?

When she was little. Vera was a wild girl who wore “men’s clothes” because she was more comfortable; Moreover, her brothers saw her as a born leader. They also kicked her out of school for playing tricks on her teachers; and years later, while studying to be a doctor, he joined revolutionary groups of young people, resulting in an arrest in 1892.

Princess Vera Ignatievna Gedroitz, of Lithuanian royalty, was born on April 19, 151 years ago, in 1870, in the Oriole government of the Russian Empire (Ukraine). She was the third of five siblings in a family where her mother came from Germany and her father belonged to the Lithuanian royalty.

According to journalist Alberto López, of the newspaper The countryVera’s interest in being a doctor was born after the death of her brother Serghei, with whom the iconic character of medicine had a close relationship. From that crucial moment in his life, his goal was to avoid the suffering of other people.

Determined to study because she was banned in Russia, she forged a relationship with one of her best friends and married him to travel to Switzerland. There he specialized in surgery and graduated with outstanding grades. Although he later had to return to Russia due to family conflicts.

In 1900 he returned home and began working in a cement factory. But, because he was the only doctor in the area, he also took care of the peasants. The conditions in which the communities lived were deplorable: they did not have good hygiene or quality nutrition, and the working environment was unhealthy. So his professional life turned out to be more complicated than it seemed.

However, Vera Gedroitz found time to write articles about advanced operations that earned her prestige in Europe. His writings have been translated into French and German.

Tired of the situation in which she lived, she managed to become certified as a Russian doctor – because until now she only had a Swiss degree – and this allowed her to practice in other parts of the country.

But peace has disappeared in her life since the war broke out and she volunteered.

During this time he introduced abdominal operations (laparotomies) to soldiers with puncture wounds. They intervened on the soldiers as soon as they were wounded, with such great success that the practice became popular throughout Russia.

Vera not only started practicing a type of medicine used so far, but all the trials were done on the hospital train. This was an equipped vehicle that was installed directly on the battlefield, where she was the boss.

In 1909, after the war, she was appointed chief physician at the Court Hospital, convened by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. There he was assigned to be a pediatrician for royal children and headed the departments of Surgery and Gynecology-Obstetrics. In addition, she began teaching basic medicine to Empress Alexandra and her daughters Tatiana and Olga, who, during World War I, helped her with the war wounded as nurses.

After the Russian Revolution, she continued her career in various health centers and as a teacher, until one of the Stalinist purges removed her from her position.

However, due to his life savings, he bought a house and lived for the rest of his years with Maria Nirod, a countess he met while working at the Court and who would become his partner.

Over the years, Dr. Vera devoted himself to writing and published works on medicine as works of fiction, until his death in March 1932 as a result of uterine cancer, after a life dedicated to medicine and aid. violence. (I)