Ferdinand Sauerbruch

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Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch (3 July 1875–2 July 1951) was a German surgeon.

Sauerbruch was born in Barmen (now a district of Wuppertal), Germany. He studied medicine at the Philipps University of Marburg, the Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, and the University of Leipzig, from the last of which he graduated in 1902. He went to Breslau in 1903, where he developed the Sauerbruch chamber, a pressure chamber for operating on the open thorax, which he demonstrated in 1904. As a battlefield surgeon during World War I, he developed several new types of limb prostheses, which enabled simple movements.

Sauerbruch worked at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich from 1918 to 1927 on surgical techniques and diets for treating tuberculosis. From 1928 to 1949, he worked at the Charité in Berlin, attaining international fame for his risky (but mostly successful) operations. Before World War II, Adolf Hitler awarded him the German National Prize for Art and Science. (He was one of only nine recipients.) During the war he was anti-Nazi. His influence on Fritz Kolbe caused the man to become a spy for the Allies — reputedly the most important spy of the war.

Sauerbruch's name may appear in histories of iatrogenesis, or adverse effects resulting from medical treatment. Late in life, he became demented and continued to perform absurd operations on many patients, with fatal results. His colleagues detected the errors but were unable to stop him because of his fame and power (for an account, see Youngson, 1997).

Sauerbruch died in Berlin at the age of seventy-five.