This man made a huge contribution to the development of medicine, developed methods of treatment and diagnostics, raised a generation of excellent doctors who continued to develop his ideas. Now the name of Sklifosovsky (doctor, scientist, leader) has become a household name. There are even sarcastic ways to use it, and this is already a sign of popular recognition.
Doctor of Medicine Nikolai Sklifosovsky in the nineteenth century was a representative of the medical elite of the Russian Empire in the world community. His textbooks, scientific papers, patents for inventions were very popular both at home and abroad. When studying the history of medicine, it is important to know the biography of the pillars of medical science, as their experience helps to educate new generations of adherents of Asclepius.
Historical snapshot
The era in which Nikolai Vasilyevich had to live and work was rich in events. The kings amended the laws, the country was in a fever from constant reforms and changes. Not everyone agreed with them, even if in the long term everything should havework out for the best.
The active work of the doctor Sklifosovsky coincided with the abolition of serfdom, the Stolypin reforms, the emergence of the ideas of Marxism and socialism and, of course, the increasing development of capitalist relations in the Russian Empire.
Unfortunately, all the changes made did not find support among the general population and were received with hostility by them. In addition, a large number of wars that devastated the country fall into this period. The tsarist government did not want to change along with the people, which made it unpopular and brought the time of the coup closer.
Childhood and youth
Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky was born in a small farm located near the town of Dubossary, located in the Kherson province. This event took place on March 25 (or April 6, according to the old style), 1836. The father of the future doctor was an impoverished nobleman, Vasily Pavlovich Sklifosovsky, who worked as a clerk in the Dubossary quarantine service. If you now ask to show on the map where Sklifosovsky was born, then no one will be able to do this, since the farm was absorbed by the rapidly growing city and got lost between its districts.
His family had many children - only twelve children, so the boy was sent to an orphanage to raise the boy. It was hard for parents to support so many offspring, so older children were sent to boarding schools to study, where the state clothed them, fed them and provided them with housing. The boy learned early what loneliness and orphanhood are. The only consolation wascraving for knowledge, especially natural sciences, history, literature and foreign languages. Soon he set himself the goal of getting out of poverty, and for this he needed to study even more diligently.
After graduating from the gymnasium, Sklifosovsky leaves for Moscow and enters Moscow University at the newly opened medical faculty. It is within the walls of his alma mater that he realizes that he wants to devote his whole life to surgery. After the final exams, the young doctor returns home and starts working in the district hospital. But this does not satisfy him. And a few years later, he decides to move to Odessa, where Nikolai Vasilievich is offered to head the surgical department at the city hospital.
Sklifosovsky devoted all his free time to science and the development of surgical skills. Such perseverance helped him defend his doctoral dissertation on the topic of operating on cancer patients in just three years.
Trip abroad
Three years later, in 1866, at the age of thirty, a young scientist, successful doctor Sklifosovsky leaves for a long business trip abroad. During this time, he manages to work in several European countries - Germany, England and France. There he meets with other surgical schools, studies new methods of treatment and organization of medical care, adopts the experience of senior colleagues in the shop.
His journey began with the Virchow Pathological Institute and Professor Langenbeck's clinic, which are located in Germany. Was involved there asmilitary doctor, worked in the infirmary and at dressing stations. Then he went to France, where he studied with Professor Klomart and trained at the Nelaton clinic. Business trip to the UK ended with Professor Simpson.
In the process of his training, Sklifosovsky draws attention to new ways of processing the surgeon's instruments and sterilizing the surgical field, which have not been previously carried out in Russia. At that time, doctors were of the opinion that disinfecting yourself and everything around before the operation was not only not necessary, but even harmful. At that time, Lister's work was too revolutionary, and not every physician was ready to take them into service.
Work in the capital
Doctor Sklifosovsky returns to his homeland in 1868, inspired and filled with new progressive ideas. He publishes a series of articles and textbooks on the knowledge that he managed to get in Europe. This is bearing fruit. In 1870, Nikolai Vasilyevich was invited to work at the Department of Surgery at Kyiv University.
But his scientific activity does not stop there. He continues to make presentations, drawing attention to his revolutionary ideas and trying to integrate them into Russian reality. His method of disinfecting medical instruments was ahead of its time and was considered one of the first in the empire.
At this moment, the Austro-Prussian war begins, and Sklifosovsky volunteers for the front as a field doctor. After the armistice, he returns to Odessa, but he will live therefails. After a short period of time, a conflict flares up between France and Germany, and the professor again goes to the front. And he returns again, but not home, but to St. Petersburg to teach at the Medical and Surgical Academy and train young military doctors.
The quiet period lasts only five years. Then Professor Sklifosovsky again leaves first for the Balkan, and then for the Russian-Turkish war, where he meets with Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov. But, in addition to working as an ordinary surgeon, Nikolai Vasilievich also had to perform administrative work as a consultant to the Red Cross. Sometimes he could not rest for several days in a row to help everyone who needed him.
Teaching
Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky returns to Moscow after the signing of peace. There he was offered the position of head of the surgical clinic to combine with teaching at the university. It was a bold decision, as the hospital he was to take care of was in a very deplorable state.
Fortunately, whatever the professor took on flourished under his guidance. Therefore, the clinic soon became one of the best in the country, and then in Europe. He installed autoclaves and dry-heat cabinets in it for processing instruments and underwear of surgeons. This made it possible to minimize complications after surgery and blood poisoning, which were not uncommon in those days. Severe illnesses such as sepsis were defeated by the efforts of Sklifosovsky.
He always tried to bring creativity into his workthread, develop yourself and pass on knowledge to your students, if they have such a desire.
Last years of life
Sklifosovsky's biography is replete with interesting events, but the last years of his life were rather gloomy. Due to a stroke, he had to leave his post as professor at the university, transfer the clinic to the care of the receiver and retire to his estate near Poltava. There he underwent rehabilitation, restored motor skills, and subsequently began gardening.
Unfortunately, the bright period was short-lived, and soon Nikolai Vasilyevich died. It happened on November 30 (or December 13, according to the old style), 1904. He was buried in the village of Yakovtsy, not far from the place where the battle with the Swedes took place in 1709.
Contribution to science and medicine
It's hard to imagine how many useful innovations appeared in Russian medicine thanks to Sklifosovsky. His biography is replete with adventures of varying degrees of danger: here are internships abroad, and participation in all the wars of Europe at that time, and life in several cities of the empire. All this amazing experience he tried to analyze and turn to the benefit of his patients and colleagues.
The Lister sterilization method, which Sklifosovsky brought back from his business trip, divided surgery into two large periods: before and after the application of knowledge about asepsis and antisepsis. Prior to this, patients died from variousseptic complications: phlegmon, gangrene, sepsis and others, but with the introduction of the idea that the doctor's instruments and hands should be clean, the number of deaths has significantly decreased.
Thanks to the development of military field surgery, the range of medical interventions has expanded, since general anesthesia has been introduced into ordinary practice. This made it possible to increase the duration of operations and improve the technique of their implementation. Sklifosovsky was the first to perform a laparotomy (opening the abdominal cavity) for therapeutic purposes, and the patient survived. For the level of medicine of that time, it was a big risk and a big success.
Modesty of the doctor and curiosities
Despite all the achievements of Nikolai Sklifosovsky, when he was a green first-year student, he fainted at the very first operation, how much he was struck by the sight of blood. But this did not stop the young man. He was able to overcome his fear and by the end of his studies he was considered one of the outstanding students. He was asked to take the Ph. D. examination.
The second case of loss of consciousness is also associated with surgery, but the reason for it is already diametrically opposite. The diligent student spent so much time doing anatomy in unventilated dissecting rooms that one day he was found in a deep faint right next to the corpse.
Surprise is also the modesty with which Sklifosovsky lived and worked. Immediately after graduating from the institute, he was offered the position of chief physician of the city hospital in Odessa, but refused, arguing that he wanted to gain more experience, and left to work as a zemstvo doctor, and thena simple resident in this very hospital.
After a quarter of a century of his professional activity, Nikolai Vasilievich will not celebrate his anniversary, he will even ask not to congratulate him on this date. But grateful patients, students and colleagues from different countries still sent him hundreds of letters and telegrams.
Doctor of all wars of his time
The military field surgery received significant development thanks to Pirogov and Sklifosovsky (who can be considered a student and successor of Nikolai Ivanovich). This happened because the young doctor was not indifferent to the fate of the people involved in the theater of war. And he didn't care if they were his compatriots or not.
As a volunteer, he goes to the front in 1866, 1870, 1876 and 1877. Four different wars gave Sklifosovsky invaluable experience, which he was able to apply not only in practice, but also to educate a generation of military doctors thanks to the opportunity to teach at the medical academy in St. Petersburg.
In addition, after working as a field surgeon, Nikolai Vasilyevich invented a new way to connect damaged joints, called the "Russian lock".
Envy of colleagues
As often happens, having made a huge contribution to medicine, Sklifosovsky Nikolai Vasilyevich gained not only admirers and grateful patients, but also envious people. His career developed rapidly, he was at the forefront of science and tried to stand up for people and his homeland more than for himself. But even such selflessness does not always resonate in the hearts of people.
On the way of a young and talented doctorobstacles were constantly encountered, about which history is silent. The scientific community of that time did not really like Sklifosovsky and did not want to accept him into their ranks. When, after returning from the front, he began to run a clinic in St. Petersburg, many saw him as their rival. It was considered bad form to get a good job at such a young age, and even more so to have a scientific degree.
The adherents of the old school actively denied the innovative ideas of Sklifosovsky, criticized his methods and made fun of him. The well-known surgeon of that time, Ippolit Korzhenevsky, spoke ironically about the Lister method in his lectures and claimed that they were ridiculously afraid of creatures that a person could not see.
Death as his eternal companion
There were interesting facts in the life of Sklifosovsky Nikolai Vasilievich that were not related to his professional activities. As a doctor, he saved thousands of people from death, but she still followed him on his heels. Not in the hospital, but at home. As soon as the young doctor got married, the newly-made wife suddenly leaves this world, leaving three small children in his care. In order to give them a full-fledged family, Nikolai Vasilyevich remarried.
From the second marriage, four more children appear in the Sklifosovsky family, but three sons also die early: Boris in the very early infancy, Konstantin at the age of 17 (from kidney tuberculosis), and the death of the elder Vladimir is connected with politics. Even in his student years, the young man became interested in revolutionary ideas, so he joined an underground organization that was engaged in subversiveactivity. Wanting to test a new member of the team, he was given the task - to kill the governor of Poltava, a close friend of the Sklifosovsky family. But the boy could not decide on such an act, so he decided to die himself, without waiting for a friendly court.
This is what caused Nikolai Vasilievich's stroke. After the tragedy, he lived for several years as a recluse on his estate and soon died too. Unfortunately, his other two sons were killed in the ensuing war, and after the Bolsheviks came to power, the professor's wife and daughter were shot as "members of the general's family", even though the government gave orders not to touch Sklifosovsky's family.
The last surviving daughter, Olga, immediately after the appearance of the Land of Soviets, emigrated from Russia and never returned to her homeland.
Scientific Research Institute for Emergency Medicine named after N. V. Sklifosovsky in Moscow
"Sklif", as doctors call it good-naturedly among themselves, is the largest emergency medical care center in Russia today. It was founded in 1923 on the basis of a home for the disabled and the elderly. The almshouse was built on the initiative of Count Sheremetyev and was named the Hospice House.
After the October Revolution, the activity of the hospital is suspended to open in 1919 as a city ambulance station. Four years after the reorganization, it was decided to open the Institute of Emergency Care and give it the name of ProfessorSklifosovsky.
During the Great Patriotic War, Sklif worked as a military hospital, received the seriously wounded from all fronts, and was also engaged in scientific activities.
For 2017 at the Research Institute for N. V. Sklifosovsky has more than forty clinical divisions, 800 doctors and scientists work here. More than seven thousand patients from all regions of the country are assisted every year.
