David Bushmich

David Gregorievich Bushmich (pronounced Gregor-eh-vitch Bush-mitch) - born March 27, 1902 in Kirovohrad^[1] (formerly Yelisavetgrad, Russian Empire) as the 4th child of Gersh-Leib and Hanna Bushmich, died October 24, 1995 in Flushing, Queens, New York, USA. Dr. Bushmich was an accomplished ophthalmologist, a student of Filatov and a leading Soviet eye doctor of his time. He emigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1990.

Education and Training

David Bushmich finished studies at the Odessa Medical Institute^[2] in 1925, and worked there until 1929 in the ward of eye diseases under the direction of V.P. Filatov.^[3] He was put in charge of the ophthalmology department in the city of Slaviansk from 1929 to 1935. After this, he was the assistant of the director of eye disease ward in Kharkov Medical Institute ( Ukraine).

Career

From 1939 until 1976, David Grigorevich worked in the Ukrainian Institute of Eye Disease and Tissue Therapy a.k.a. The Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases & Tissue Therapy named after the Academic V. P. Filatov^[4] as the director of the division for transplantation of the cornea, and then became the director of the clinical department.

Professional Contributions

At the time of WWII, from 1941 to 1944, he worked at evacuation-hospitals, where he saved the sight of thousands of wounded soldiers. He then worked as the senior scientist for the Turkmenistan Medical Institute. In 1937, he defended the candidate dissertation on the topic of "Determination of localized changes within the eye depth", and in 1958, after multiple attempts to overcome antisemitism,^[5] particularly having complications related to the Doctors' plot, he defended a doctorate dissertation titled "Clinical Partial Transplantation of the Cornea". In 1961 he earned the title of Professor.

David Bushmich is the author of more than 170 scientific works on various problems associated with ophthalmology. His most notable contribution to the field came from inventing the layered cornea transplantation technique. He also invented specialized tools for the technique of layered cornea transplantation.

Dr. Bushmich's main professional interests revolved around the restoration of eyesight for patients with leukoma (a dense white opacity in the cornea of the eye) and its etiology (origin). He investigated various approaches to dealing with leukoma, developed a classification system which is used by ophthalmologists today.

References