This man made a huge contribution to the development of medicine, developed methods of treatment and diagnosis, 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.
In the nineteenth century, Nikolai Sklifosovsky, MD, 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 adepts of Asclepius.
Historical section
The era in which Nikolai Vasilievich had to live and work was eventful. 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 run everything should have worked out in the best way.
The vigorous activity of the doctor Sklifosovsky coincided with the abolition of serfdom, Stolypin reforms, the emergence of the ideas of Marxism and socialism, and, of course, the ever-increasing development of capitalist relations in the Russian Empire.
Unfortunately, all the undertaken changes did not find support among the general population and were perceived by them with hostility. In addition, a large number of militaries devastated the country during this period. The tsarist government did not want to change with the people, which made it unpopular and brought the time of the coup closer.
Childhood and youth
Nikolai Vasilievich 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) of 1836. The father of the future doctor was an impoverished nobleman, Vasily Pavlovich Sklifosovsky, who worked as a clerk of the Dubossary quarantine service. If now we ask to show on the map where Sklifosovsky was born, then no one can do this, since the farm was absorbed by the rapidly growing city and lost between its areas.
His family was large - only twelve children, so he was sent to an orphanage to raise a boy. Keeping so many offspring was difficult for parents, so older children were sent to boarding schools for training, where the state dressed, fed and provided housing. The boy early learned what loneliness and orphanhood are. The only joy was the desire for knowledge, especially for the natural sciences, history, literature and foreign languages. Soon he set himself the goal of getting out of poverty, and for this he had to study even more diligently.
After graduating from high school, Sklifosovsky leaves for Moscow and enters the University of Moscow at the recently 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 final exams, the young doctor returns home and starts work in the Zemstvo hospital. But that 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 in 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 operation of cancer patients in just three years.
Trip abroad
Three years later, in 1866, at the age of thirty, a young scientist, a successful doctor Sklifosovsky went on a long 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, takes over the experience of senior colleagues in the workshop.
His journey began with the pathological institute of Virchow and the clinic of Professor Langenbeck, which are located in Germany. He was involved there as a military doctor, worked in the infirmary and at dressing stations. Then he went to France, where he studied with Professor Clomart and trained in the Nelaton Clinic. Ended a business trip to the UK, with Professor Simpson.
In the process of his training, Sklifosovsky draws attention to new methods of processing surgeon's instruments and to sterilization of the surgical field, which were not previously carried out in Russia. At that time, doctors were of the opinion that disinfecting yourself and everything around before the operation is not only not necessary, but even harmful. At that time, the work of Lister was too revolutionary, and not every doctor was ready to take them into service.
Work in the capital
The doctor Sklifosovsky returns to his homeland in 1868, inspired and filled with new progressive ideas. He prints a series of articles and textbooks on the knowledge that has been obtained in Europe. It bears fruit. In 1870, Nikolai Vasilyevich was invited to work at the Department of Surgery at Kiev University.
But his scientific activity does not stop there. He continues to make reports, drawing attention to his revolutionary ideas and trying to integrate them into Russian reality. His method of disinfecting medical instruments was ahead of his 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 truce, he returns to Odessa, but he does not manage to live there. After a short period of time, a conflict between France and Germany flared up, and the professor again went to the front. And he returns again, but not to his home, but to St. Petersburg to teach at the Medical and Surgical Academy and train young military doctors.
The lull period lasts only five years. Then professor Sklifosovsky again goes first to the Balkan, and then to the Russian-Turkish war, where he meets with Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov. But, in addition to working as an ordinary surgeon, Nikolai Vasilievich 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 Vasilievich Sklifosovsky after signing the peace returns to Moscow. There he was offered the position of the head of a surgical clinic to combine with teaching at the university. This was a bold decision, as the hospital, which he was to deal with, was in very poor condition.
Fortunately, any business the professor took up blossomed 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 the treatment of surgeons' instruments and linen. This made it possible to minimize complications after surgery and blood poisoning, which were not uncommon in those days. Severe diseases, such as sepsis, were defeated by Sklifosovsky’s efforts.
He always tried to bring a creative thread into his work, to develop himself and to transfer knowledge to his students, if they had such a desire.
last years of life
Sklifosovsky’s biography abounds 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 to engage in gardening.
Unfortunately, the luminous gap was short-lived, and soon Nikolai Vasilievich died. It happened on November 30 (or December 13 according to the old style) of 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 is difficult to imagine how many useful innovations appeared in domestic medicine thanks to Sklifosovsky. His biography abounds with adventures of varying degrees of danger: there are internships abroad, and participation in all the wars of Europe at that time, and life in several cities of the empire. He tried to analyze all this amazing experience and turn it in favor for his patients and colleagues.
The Lister sterilization method, which Sklifosovsky brought from a business trip, divided surgery into two large periods: before and after applying knowledge of aseptic and antiseptic. Prior to this, patients died of various septic 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 decreased significantly.
Thanks to the development of field surgery, the range of medical interventions has expanded, since general anesthesia has been introduced into ordinary practice. This allowed 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 great success.
The modesty of the doctor and the oddities
Despite all the achievements of Nikolai Sklifosovsky, when he was a green first-year student, he fainted during the first operation, as 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 an exam for a doctorate.
The second case of loss of consciousness is also associated with surgery, but the reason is already diametrically opposite. A zealous student has been doing anatomy for so long in an unventilated sectional room that one day he was found in deep fainting right next to a corpse.
The modesty with which Sklifosovsky lived and worked was also surprising. Immediately after graduation, he was offered the position of chief physician at the Odessa city hospital, but refused, arguing that he wanted to gain more experience, and left to work as a zemstvo doctor, and then as a simple intern in this very hospital.
After a quarter of a century of his professional activity, Nikolai Vasilievich will not celebrate the anniversary, will ask not even to congratulate him on this date. But grateful patients, students and colleagues from different countries still sent him hundreds of letters and telegrams.
The doctor of all the wars of his time
The field surgery was significantly developed thanks to Pirogov and Sklifosovsky (who can be considered a student and successors 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 did not 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 that he could 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 Vasilievich invented a new method for connecting damaged joints, called the “Russian castle”.
The envy of fellow workers
As often happens, having made a huge contribution to medicine, Sklifosovsky Nikolai Vasilievich gained not only admirers and grateful patients, but also envious ones. His career was developing rapidly, he was at the forefront of science and tried to advocate for people and homeland more than for himself. But even such disinterestedness does not always receive a response in the hearts of people.
On the way to a young and talented doctor, there were constantly obstacles that history is silent about. 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 manage the clinic in St. Petersburg, many saw him as their rival. To get a good place at such a young age was then considered bad form, and to have a scientific degree - even more so.
Adherents of the old school actively denied Sklifosovsky’s innovative ideas, criticized his methods and made fun of him. The famous surgeon of that time Ippolit Korzhenevsky in his lectures spoke with irony about the Lister method and claimed that they were ridiculously afraid of creatures that a person cannot see.
Death as his eternal companion
There were interesting facts in the life of Nikolai V. Sklifosovsky that were not related to his professional activities. As a doctor, he saved thousands of people from death, but she still followed on his heels. Not at the hospital, but at home. As soon as the young doctor got married, the newly-made wife suddenly leaves this world, leaving three young children in his care. In order to give them a full-fledged family, Nikolai Vasilievich remarried.
Four more children appear from the second marriage in the Sklifosovsky family, but three sons also die early: Boris in early childhood, Konstantin at 17 years old (from kidney tuberculosis), and the death of senior Vladimir is connected with politics. Even as a student, the young man began to get involved in revolutionary ideas, so he joined an underground organization that was engaged in subversive activities. Wanting to check out a new member of the team, he was given the task of killing 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 trial.
This is precisely what caused the stroke of Nikolai Vasilievich. After the tragedy, he lived for several years as a recluse on his estate and soon died too. Unfortunately, two of his other sons were killed in the ensuing war, and after the Bolsheviks came to power, the professor’s wife and daughter were executed as “members of the general’s family,” even though the government ordered them not to touch the Sklifosovsky family.
The last surviving daughter, Olga, immediately after the advent of the Country of Soviets emigrated from Russia and never returned to her homeland.
Research Institute of Emergency Medicine named after N.V. Sklifosovsky in Moscow
Sklif, as doctors good-naturedly called among themselves, is the largest emergency care center in Russia today. It was founded in 1923 on the basis of the home for disabled and elderly people. The almshouse was built on the initiative of Count Sheremetyev and received the name of the Hospice.
After the October Revolution, hospital operations were suspended to open in 1919 as a city ambulance station. Four years after the reorganization, it was decided to open the Emergency Care Institute and give it the name of Professor Sklifosovsky.
During the Great Patriotic War, Sklif worked as a military hospital, received heavy wounded from all fronts, and also engaged in scientific activities.
For 2017, at the Research Institute of the Joint Venture named after N.V. Sklifosovsky has more than forty clinical units; 800 doctors and scientists work here. Each year, more than seven thousand patients from all regions of the country are assisted.