Famous surgeon visiting N.Z.

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32565, 26 March 1971, Page 2

Famous surgeon visiting N.Z.

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, March 25. The man who revolutionised the treatment of spinal injuries, and who began the Paraplegic Games, will visit Christchurch next month in the course of his present visit to New Zealand. He is Sir Ludwig Guttman, aged 71.

Sir Ludwig Guttman, who is at present in Auckland, will travel to Picton on April 3 as the guest of the Canterbury Paraplegic Association. In Christchurch on April 5, he will have discussions with the North Canterbury Hospital Board, and will be guest of honour at a meeting at which the Mayor (Mr A. R. Guthrey) will be chairman.

He will return to Wellington for meetings with the Minister of Health and officials before attending the New Zealand Paraplegic Games in Dunedin. Bom in Germany, he went to England as a refugee in 1939, already a distinguished

neurologist and neurosurgeon with an interest in paraplegia. After a time as research fellow in the University of Oxford, he was invited to establish a spinal injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville in 1944. He was its director for 25 years.

He founded the Paraplegic Games in 1948 and the International Medical Society of Paraplegia in 1961.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital was the first of its kind in the world. It was bom of the need for care of war casualties, but soon took in civilian casualties, and became a training centre for doctors and nurses.