Fidel Pagés
| Fidel Pagés Miravé | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 26, 1886 Huesca, Spain |
| Died | September 21, 1923 (aged 37) Quintanapalla, Spain |
| Education |
University of Zaragoza Central University of Madrid |
| Years active | 1908-1923 |
| Known for | Discoverer of epidural anesthesia |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Physician |
| Institutions |
Spanish Army Provincial Hospital of Madrid |
| Specialism | Surgery |
Fidel Pagés Miravé (January 26, 1886 – September 21, 1923) was a Spanish military surgeon, known for developing the technique of epidural anesthesia.
He practised a wide range of traumatological and surgical techniques, both for war injuries and civil purposes, contributed to the modernisation of surgery in Spain and participated actively in the reorganisation of the Spanish Military Health system in the 1920s. Due to his early accidental death, his pioneering work in epidural anesthesia (or metameric anesthesia as he called it) went unnoticed for many years outside of Spanish speaking countries.
Fidel Pagés was born and grew up in the Spanish city of Huesca in an upper-middle-class family. His parents were Juan Pagés Maraque and Concepción Miravé Sesé. His father died when Fidel was 7 and his mother remarried, an episode which would have great effect in the personality of the child.
In 1901 he started his studies of Medicine at the University of Zaragoza, where he received his degree in Medicine and Surgery with honors in 1908. During these years he also learned the German language, something that would be of importance later in his career when it gave him the opportunity to exchange experiences with surgeons of German origin.
Pagés entered the Army Medical Corps in 1908 and, after one year at the Military Health Academy, received the rank of second medical officer in June 1909. The second Rif War was at its peak at this point: the Spanish Army had suffered a series of dramatic defeats (Barranco del Lobo) and the medical services in Melilla were overwhelmed. Pagés was sent in July 1909 as part of the medical reinforcements that were to set up several emergency military hospitals in the city. He stayed in Melilla for two years, first as surgeon's assistant during the six months of the campaign, and later also organizing the improvement of the equipment in mountain ambulances and instructing recruits in the Medical Corps. He returned to mainland Spain in the in between, staying for some months in the Military Hospital of Carabanchel. During his stay in Melilla he gained fundamental experience in emergency surgery.
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