Andreas Gruentzig
| Andreas Roland Grüntzig | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 25, 1939 Dresden, Germany |
| Died | October 27, 1985 near Forsyth, Georgia |
| Cause of death | airplane crash |
| Known for | first developed successful balloon angioplasty |
Andreas Roland Grüntzig (June 25, 1939 – October 27, 1985) was a German radiologist who first developed successful balloon angioplasty for expanding lumens of narrowed arteries. He was born in Dresden.
Andreas Roland Gruentzig was born at the start of World War II on June 25, 1939 in Dresden, Germany. His father, Dr. Wilmar Gruentzig (1902–1945), was a secondary-school science teacher with a Ph.D. in chemistry. Wilmar was conscripted into the meteorological service of the Luftwaffe during World War II. He presumably died during the war. His mother was Charlotta (née Zeugner) Gruentzig (1907-1955) and a teacher. His older brother was Johannes Gruentzig. After his birth in Dresden, in 1940 the family moved to the house of a relative in the small town of Rochlitz in western Saxony. After the war, Charlotta and her sons moved to Leipzig along with her sister Alfreda Beier and her mother. In 1950, Charlotta moved her family to Buenos Aires, Argentina to live with her husband's brother and wife. Unhappy and homesick Charlotta and her two sons moved back to Leipzig two years later. Gruentzig and his brother Johannes entered high school at the Thomasschule zu Leipzig. Gruetzig graduated from the Thomasschule in 1957 with highest honors. In 1956, his brother Johannes fled across the border to Hanover. Gruentzig followed a year later.
Gruentzig studied at Bunsen Gymnasium while his brother enrolled as a medical student at Heidelberg University. Gruentzig began his medical studies at Heidelberg University in the fall of 1958 subsequently graduating on April 8, 1964. He then rotated through a series of internships in Mannheim, Hanover, Bad Harzburg, and Ludwigshafen. His studies included internal medicine and vascular surgery. In 1966 Gruentzig returned to Heidelberg University to take on a staff assistant job at the university's Institute for Social and Occupational Medicine investigating risk factors for cardiovascular disease, chronic bronchitis, and liver degeneration. In 1967, he departed for a six month paid fellowship to study epidemiology at the University of London School of Hygiene. In 1968 he returned to Heidelberg. Early in 1968 he left for a six month assistant doctor's job in Darmstadt at the Max Ratschow Clinic.
...
Wikipedia