Born: August 21, 1850, Dusocin, Prussian partition of Poland (presently Dusocin, Poland).
Died: June 25, 1920, Lwow, Poland (presently Lviv, Ukraine)
Early days. His father, Karol Riediger was a landowner. Ludwik, who accented his Polish roots since childhood, changed his name to Rydygier in 1869. He got his primary education from Collegium Marianum in Pelplin and then in Chojnice. He graduated in 1869 from the Gimnazjum (high school) in Kulm, Prussian partition of Poland (presently Chelmno, Poland. In years 1869-1878 he studied medicine at the University of Greifswald (but also in Berlin and Strasbourg). He got an MD diploma in 1873 and the doctorate (surgical antiseptics) in 1874.
Career. After the studies he moved to Gdansk, then to Kulm and in 1877 to Greifswald and finally he was running a private clinic in Kulm. There he wrote many of his papers in the field of surgery. In 1887 he was appointed to be the head of the surgery department at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Later he became the dean of the School of Medicine at the Jagiellonian University. In 1897 he was asked to lead the new surgery faculty and clinic at Lwow (presently Lviv, Ukraine) University, to which he agreed. In 1880, as the first in partitioned Poland and second in the world he succeeded in surgical removal of the pylorus in a patient suffering from stomach cancer. He was also the first to document this procedure. In 1881, as the first in the world, he carried out a peptic ulcer resection. In 1884 he introduced a new method of surgical peptic ulcer treatment using gastroenterostomy. Rydygier proposed (1900) original concepts for removing prostatic adenoma and introduced many other surgical techniques. He was the dean of the Medical Department and in the years 1901-1902 functioned as rector (President) of Lwow University. He was mentor to many splendid surgeons and future professors. In 1889 he organized the first surgical conference in partitioned Poland. These conferences led to the establishment of Polish Surgeon Society. He was an outstanding surgeon, well known for his practical achievements, as well as initiator of new methods and a talented organizer. Some of his ideas, which include gastric surgeries, surgery of rectal cancer, amputations, plastic, orthopedic and cardiothoracic surgery and urology are successfully used to date. During the First World War he led military hospital in Brno. After the war he immediately returned to Lwow, where he fought against Ukrainians in November 1918. He was promoted to general of Polish Army. In 1920 he started organizing military hospitals. Rydygier was not free of prejudices: he was vehemently opposed to allowing women to study medicine. In a paper published in Przeglad Lekarski in 1895 he said „Precz wiec z Polski z dziwolagiem kobiety – lekarza!” („Get rid from Poland with a freak of nature- a woman doctor!”). He died suddenly in 1920 and was buried at the officer part of Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwow.
Family. He was married to Maria nee Borkowska. They had two sons: Antoni (born 1878) and Jozef (born 1882). Jozef became an engineer and Antoni an MD who in 1921 left with his family to Curitiba, Brazil where he became in 1922 a Professor of Medicine.
Prizes. The Austrian Emperor awarded him the title of Hofrat (Court Advisor) and the order of Iron Crown of III Class; the Pope awarded him the Order of Saint Gregory.
Main source
This article uses, among others, material from the Wikipedia article "Ludwik Rydygier" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. :
Wikipedia
supplemented with information from:
Collegium Medicum (in Polish)
Genealogy (in Polish)
Return to home page:
Prominent Poles
