“It is better to open and see, than wait and see…”
Sidney Cuthbert Wallace
All surgeons can be princesses at times, but this one really was. Princess Vera Ignatievna Gedroits was born in the then Russian Empire in 1870. Her father was a local politician, who was awarded the hereditary title of prince. Vera studied medicine in St Petersburg. She was rebellious, confrontational, openly gay, often in jail, extremely clever, and in the end only just allowed to graduate. In Lausanne she trained as a surgeon under Caesar Roux, he of the loop rather than the sauce. Gedroits headed to the frontlines with the Red Cross upon the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. Here she was a rebel and innovator. Prior to antibiotics, penetrating abdominal wounds were considered inoperable, wait and see was considered the best strategy. The outcomes were grim. Gedroits approach was against this doctrine, she operated, stopped bleeding, resected, diverted, repaired, and drained. Hers results were impressive, if she could operate within 3 hours of the injury, well over half of her patients survived. A Princess had invented the trauma laparotomy. #NELAquidelines #letsmakelemonade
Pen Paint and Scalpel 