History of the ISS/SIC: Antoine Depage, one of the founders of the ISS/SIC.

Abstract

Antoine Depage, born near Brussels in 1862, was one of the founders and first Secretary General of the Société Internationale de Chirurgie (ISS-SIC). After an excellent medical education at the Free Brussels University, he became professor at the same university at the age of 27. Surgically trained by Prof. Thiriar, he became one of the leading Belgian surgeons at the end of the nineteenth century, and he published more than 100 articles in national and international journals. In 1907 he founded a school for nurses in Brussels, to be directed by Edith Cavell. He also vigorously transformed the organization of the public hospitals in the Belgian capital. During World War I Queen Elisabeth appointed him surgeon-in-chief of the Océan-hospital in De Panne, where more than 50,000 soldiers with wounds, fractures, cerebral trauma, nitrous gas intoxication, and infectious diseases, among other problems were treated. The results he and his team obtained were excellent, and mortality was low. Many surgeons, including Alexis Carrel, as well as distinguished political leaders came to visit him in the hospital barracks. After the war he was honored by many political and scientific organizations, including the Société Internationale de Chirurgie. He served our Society not only as Secretary General from 1902 to 1912 but became President of the 4th Congress of the ISS-SIC in New York. Antoine Depage died after a long illness in 1925.