Princess Vera Ignatievna Giedroyc (Russian: Вера Игнатьевна Гедройц, 1870 - 1932) was a Lithuanian princess, a doctor of medicine, a professor, the first female surgeon in Russia, one of the first female professors of surgery in the world, and a writer of poetry and prose.
Giedroyc belonged to a Lithuanian princely clan which shared its origins with the more famous Radziwill family. She was born in Slobodishe (Oryol guberniya) into the Russian-speaking milieu and was trained to be a surgeon at the University of Lausanne, in clinic of professor César Roux. Illness of parents and death of sister have compelled Giedroyc to come back in 1900 to Russia.
Her work in laparotomies during the Russo-Japanese War was among the first to achieve a high success rate. This led the Russian army to adopt the procedure, and caused the notions the correct treatment of penetrating abdominal wounds to change.
In 1909 Giedroyc was transferred to the court hospital in Tsarskoe Selo, where she worked as a surgeon to the imperial family. At that time she joined the Poets' Guild, publishing her poems under the pen name "Sergei Giedroyc".
After the February Revolution she did not flee the Tsarskoe Selo (as many her relatives did). She went to work on the World War I front, but settled in Kiev with her lover, Countess Maria Nierodt.[1]
Giedroyc actively worked and wrote scientific works on oncology, children's surgery, and endocrinology. In 1921 she started to teach at the Kiev medical institute. In 1923 she was selected for a post of the professor, and in 1930 she headed chair of faculty surgery.
She died of cancer and was buried in her native city.