Lorenz Böhler
| Lorenz Böhler | |
|---|---|
| Born |
15 January 1885 Wolfurt, Austria |
| Died | 20 January 1973 (aged 88) Vienna |
| Nationality |
 Austria
|
| Fields | Physician, surgeon |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
Lorenz Böhler (15 January 1885 in Wolfurt, Austria – 20 January 1973 in Vienna) was an Austrian physician and famous surgeon.
Böhler is most notable as one of the creators—or even the creator—of modern accident surgery. He was the head of the AUVA-Hospital in Vienna, Brigittenau, that was later named after him: Lorenz-Böhler-Unfallkrankenhaus. This hospital was an international model during his time as the leading surgeon there. In radiology, the measurement of Böhler's angle on a foot X-ray can help detect fractures of the calcaneus.
At the early age of 5 Böhler – son of a family of craftspeople - knew he wanted to become a surgeon. When he was a little boy he used to anatomize small birds and squirrels. On 6 December 1896 an X-ray of a hand by Wilhelm Röntgen was published in the "Das interessante Blatt" magazine. Lorenz Böhler saw it, cut it out and stuck it on his reading book. In 1896 he attended the fürsterzbischöfliche Knabenseminar in Brixen. After two years he left that school and attended secondary school in Bregenz, where he had to repeat the third grade. He graduated in 1905. He started his studies in medicine in 1905 at the University of Vienna. In 1910 he met his wife—a nurse—at Bregenz’s hospital where he was working as a trainee. On 1 July 1911 Böhler became Doctor of Medicine at Vienna’s University.
For a short time (1911—and then again in 1919, 1920) Lorenz Böhler was working at the clinic of surgeon Julius Hochenegg, who was his Professor at University. Hochenegg was one of the first doctors who had a department for accident surgery in his clinic. Since September 1911 Böhler worked as a physician on a ship for a few months, until he started to work at the garrison’s hospital at Ragusa, where he became a k. u. k. substitute medical assistant. There he mostly did bacteriological work. In Autumn 1912 he became an assistant doctor at the hospital in Bozen and in April 1913 he became assistant doctor in Tetschen an der Elbe. In 1914 Lorenz Böhler went to an international surgeons congress in New York. On his way to the congress he met Belgian doctor Albin Lambotte, who told him about surgical methods of fracture treatment. Afterwards Böhler spent some time at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, where he met Charles Horace Mayo. Mayo told him about the centres of fracture treatment at London and Liverpool. There was nothing like this in the German-speaking part of Europe. Mayo gave Böhler a commendatory letter for Arbuthnot Lane in London, who was one of the leading European doctors in surgical fracture treatment, but the breakout of World War I made it impossible for Böhler to visit Lane.
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