Pauls Stradiņš

Pauls Stradiņš (17 January 1896, Viesīte – 14 August 1958, Riga) was a Latvian professor, physician, and surgeon.^[1] Founder of the Museum of the History of Medicine in Riga.

Early life

Pauls Stradiņš was born at Eķengrāve (German: Eckengraf) hamlet (now – the town of Viesīte) as a son of a craftsman – joiner, carpenter and pub owner. His parents, despite being of modest means, were able to pay for his education. P. Stradiņš graduated from the Riga Alexander Gymnasium (1914) and entered the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy in Petrograd where he received an excellent medical education under the best Russian medical authorities (including Nobel Prize Winner Professor Ivan Pavlov).

Medical training and start of career

During the World War I P. Stradiņš practiced as an army doctor on the Russian Western Front, in Persia, and as a Chief of surgical department in Vladivostok. After graduating from the Military Academy in 1919 he was appointed as an institute doctor (i.e. candidate for MD degree) in the Hospital Surgery clinic, headed by Professor Sergey Fedorov, the former private surgeon (Leibchirurg) of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II. Under his supervision, P. Stradiņš performed his doctoral thesis on treatment of peripheral nerve injury. This pioneering work included data from 862 patient cases on trophic, secretory and vasomotor disturbances after injuries in the extremities, use of surgical and conservative (physiotherapeutic) methods. In 1922, P. Stradiņš decided to perform an experiment on himself – a periarterial sympathectomy (after Jaboulay-Leriche) was done on his own left shoulder by V. N. Shamov and he then personally evaluated the results of this operation. Additionally, physiological and pharmacological experiments were carried out by Stradiņš in the laboratories of the prominent physiologist Ivan Pavlov and pharmacologist Nikolai Kravkov. These first works were highly appreciated by S. Fedorov, who regarded P. Stradiņš as one of his "best and most gifted pupils, and his works on the spontaneous gangrene and operations on nerves as indubitably excellent". In 1919 P. Stradiņš, together with N. N. Yelanski, I. R. Petrov and other colleagues produced the first standard serum for blood transfusion in the Soviet Russia.

Professorship at University of Latvia and medical advances

Despite his very successful start in Petrograd, P. Stradiņš returned to Riga at the end of 1923 and joined the Faculty of Medicine at the newly founded University of Latvia. In 1924 he was nominated as the first Rockefeller Fellow from Latvia to gain experience in the USA and United Kingdom (1924–1926). He succeeded to work under Alfred Washington Adson at the surgical clinic of the Mayo Clinic, as well as under C. C. Choyce at Imperial College London. His second doctoral thesis was defended in 1927 at the University of Latvia, summarizing results of his research on the genesis and treatment of obliterating endarteritis (gangraena spontanea) obtained in Petrograd, Rochester and Riga. The main results were published in German and Russian medical journals and were recognized by the Latvian Cultural Foundation’s Award in 1928. At the end of the 1920s, P. Stradiņš turned himself from the problems of periphery neurosurgery to abdominal surgery and cancer treatment.

In 1931, P. Stradins was appointed Medical Director of the 2nd City Hospital of Riga (now Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital). He was the main organizer of the university clinical basis in this hospital, as well as of its modernization and improvement. In 1933, he became Professor of Surgery, the position he held until his death. During 1927-1939, he interacted with a number of research centers all over Europe and adopted the foreign experience and innovations for Latvia. He became the leading specialist of oncology in Latvia: he founded the Latvian Society of Cancer Treatment in 1934, attended international cancer congresses in Madrid and Brussels, and was appointed as the Latvian representative in the International Union of Anti-Cancer Struggle. In 1935, P. Stradiņš founded the first surgical department of cancer treatment at his hospital. In 1938, he also founded a specialized cancer hospital in Riga. He paid primary attention to the treatment of inoperable cancer patients, contacted experts from Germany and Austria and communicated his preliminary results on this topic at the 1st Conference of Medical Doctors of the Baltic Countries and Finland, in Helsinki (1938). P. Stradiņš won a reputation as one of the most recognized doctors in Latvia both due to his successful private practice and also his organizational activities in health care. In 1937, during the authoritarian regime of Kārlis Ulmanis, he founded and chaired the Society for Health Promotion (Veselības veicināšanas biedrība). It included anti-cancer, anti-tuberculosis, anti-venerological, etc. societies as sections, maintained sanatoriums, charity actions, and organized exhibitions on health care and demography. It included as well the Institute of Research of the Nation’s Life Resources (Tautas dzīvā spēka pētīšanas institūts) (headed by Prof. J. Prīmanis), which was responsible for demographic, genealogical and eugenics investigations of the population of Latvia. The Society for Health Promotion played an important role in prewar Latvia. P. Stradiņš was a co-founding member and representative of Latvia at the International Academy for Improvement of Medical Education, founded in Budapest in 1938, as well as the delegate of Latvia at the International Hospital Association.

During the World War II

Unfortunately, all these activities and some projects ceased with the loss of independence of Latvia and its annexation by the USSR in 1940. During the first year of Soviet Occupation (1940–1941) Professor Stradiņš retained his duties at the Medical Faculty and University Hospital and renewed contacts with his former colleagues in Soviet Russia. With the entrance of Nazi occupation forces in 1941, P. Stradiņš was arrested for some days because of his humanitarian aid to Jews and wounded soldiers at his hospital. After his release, P. Stradiņš was dismissed from his duties, later also from the cancer hospital where he had tried to save some mentally disabled patients.

Post-WWII period

In contrast to the majority of his colleagues – Latvian medical professors and doctors – P. Stradiņš did not leave his native country in autumn 1944 to escape to the West. He was one of the rare Latvian intellectuals – non-communists – who stayed for patriotic reasons and tried to undertake positive activities under the new conditions. Thus, he became for a while a key-figure not only in medicine, but also in public activities.

P. Stradiņš was appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1944–1946), the chief doctor of the Clinical Hospital (1944–1947), the chairman of the Medicine Science Council at the Health Ministry (1945–1948), the Chief Surgeon and the Chief Oncologist of the Latvian SSR. He was elected Member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (1945), and nominated as one of the first Full Members of the newly founded Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences (1946).

Nevertheless, during the period of ideological repression, inspired by Stalin’s regime and the brutal struggle against Western influences, very soon P. Stradiņš lost his positions in medicine and science. He was dismissed from his main duties and became a victim of ideological campaigns in 1947-1949. However, he was allowed to continue his activities as professor, and until 1950 even held the position of Director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine at the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences. During the 1940s and 1950s P. Stradiņš was able to investigate cancer problems, to educate a generation of skilled Latvian physicians and surgeons, and to organize a unique museum of the history of medicine. In this time, P. Stradiņš also became the first to introduce the nitrofuran agent (Furacilin) and tioTEPA for use in cancer chemotherapy, in the clinical medicine of the former USSR.

Collection on history of world medicine

Besides practicing medicine, the lifetime work of P. Stradiņš was a private collection on the history of medicine, which he started already in prewar Latvia. In the 1930s, the collection was on the premises of his clinical hospital. The museum was completed and donated to the state in 1957. It was the biggest and most notable collection on the history of world medicine in the former USSR and nowadays is recognized as a unique and prominent collection of this kind in the world. Since 1958 the museum is called Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine, completed by his successors.

During the last period of his life, after Stalin’s death, P. Stradiņš was "rehabilitated" from various insinuations and even elected as a member of Soviet Latvia’s parliament – Deputy of Supreme Council of the Latvian SSR (1955–1958).

P. Stradiņš died on August 14, 1958, after a one-and-a-half year period of sickness (stroke). During these last months he organized the first thoracic and cardiovascular operations, the chemotherapy treatment of cancer in his clinics, as well as organized premises for official recognition of the museum.

Posthumous recognition and legacy

The name of P. Stradiņš is borne by the Pauls Stradiņš Clinical State Hospital (since 1958), the P. Stradiņš Health and Social Care College in Jūrmala (since 1989), Riga Medical Institute has been reorganized in 1998 into Riga Stradiņš University, with social sciences (the name has been affirmed by the Saeima in 2002).

P. Stradiņš was a many sided physician, active in surgery, oncology, urology, blood transfusion, dieting, physiotherapy, pharmacology, history of medicine, organization of health care. He introduced into Latvian medical practice many modern methods of diagnostics and medical treatment and investigated new methods for the early discovery of cancer. He has published about 80 scientific papers in Russian, German, Latvian, Polish, Finnish, Lithuanian, English editions. After his death, in 1963-1965 a three-volume edition of his selected works was issued in Russian. He was a member of the editorial board of three leading USSR journals of medicine (Klinitcheskaya Medicina, Eksperimental'naya Chirurgija, Voprosy onkologiji).

P. Stradiņš was conferred the Latvian order "Croix de la reconnaissance" (1938) and the USSR Order of Red Banner of Labor (1956). He was a Merited Scientist of the Latvian SSR (1945), and honorary member of the oldest Russian association for surgeons – N. Pirogov Society (1957). He was a member of the student fraternity Fraternitas Metropolitana (since 1932).

The Pauls Stradiņš Award for medical sciences and history of medicine has been established in Latvia (since 1991 – for merits in medicine; since 1983 – for merits in the history of medicine), which has been conferred to Latvian and foreign scientists and historians of medicine. It is the most prestigious award in the medical sciences in Latvia, as P. Stradiņš is one of the internationally most renowned names in medicine from Latvia.

Family and colleagues

His wife Ņina Stradiņa (Malysheva, 1897-1991) was one of the pioneers of physiotherapeutic treatment in Latvia. Children: Irēna Stradiņa (1925–1972) – painter and architect; Maija Sosāre (1926–2008) – English philologist, head of the foreign languages department in Riga Medical Institute; Jānis Stradiņš (b. 1933) – scientist in chemistry and historian of sciences, professor, Full Member (1973) and former President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences; Asja Eglīte (b. 1943) – physician-physiotherapist in Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital. Grand children: Pauls Stradiņš jun. (b. 1963), physicist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado (USA), Foreign Member of Latvian Academy of Sciences; Pēteris Stradiņš (b. 1971), cardiac surgeon, Associated Professor of Riga Stradins University, Head of Cardiac Surgery department in Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital, Corresponding Member of Latvian Academy of Sciences; Andrejs Ērglis (b. 1965), cardiologist, Professor at the University of Latvia, Head of Cardiologic Center, Full member of Latvian Academy of Sciences; Linda Sosāre (b. 1963). Dr. med., gastroenterologist, Head of Endoscopy department at Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital; Māra Sosāre (b. 1957) Dr. phil., English philologist, Adrienna Kalniņa (b. 1953), widow of the cardiologist Professor Uldis Kalniņš.

Among the closest associates and colleagues of P. Stradiņš were Ēvalds Ezerietis, Vladimirs Utkins, Jānis Slaidiņš, Veronika Rozenbaha, Jevgēnijs Linārs, Lazar Yavorkovski, Ksenija Skulme, Ojārs Aleksis, Eduards Smiltēns, Izidors Sjakste, Velta Bramberga, Rasma Ceplīte, Guntis Vitenbergs, Anna Bormane, Kārlis Dolietis, Mihails Dubinskis, Arturs Rocēns, Valdis Kraulis, Pāvils Purviņš, Vilhelms Pampe, Jānis Erdmanis, Aleksandrs Marovskis.

Notes

• Akadēmiķis Pauls Stradiņš. Bibliogrāfija. Rīga, 1959 (in Latvian, Russian)
• Professors Pauls Stradiņš dzīvē un darbā. Rīga, 1961 (in Latvian)
• A. Vīksna. Paula Stradiņa dzīves un darbības vietas. Rīga, 1973 (in Latvian), 1978 (Russian translation)
• J. Stradiņš, K. Ē. Ārons, A. Vīksna. Tāds bija mūsu laiks. Veltījums P. Stradiņa 100gadei. Rīga, 1996. 491 p. (in Latvian)
• J. Stradiņš, J. Salaks. (Edit.) Materials about Pauls Stradins and his museum. Acta Medico-Historica Rigensia. Vol. VIII. Rīga, 2007. 430 p. (in Latvian, Russian, English)
• Страдынь П. И. Избранные труды. Рига, т. 1-3, 1963—1965 (Selected works, in Russian)
• Павел Иванович Страдынь — врач, ученый, человек. Отв. ред. В. В. Канеп. Рига: Зинатне, 1967. 392 с. (in Russian)

References

External links

• Media related to Pauls Stradiņš at Wikimedia Commons