Charles Schepens

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Human eye cross-sectional view. Courtesy NIH National Eye Institute.

Charles Louis Schepens (March 13, 1912 – March 28, 2006)

ophthalmologist, regarded by many in the profession as "the father of modern retinal surgery",[2][3] and member of the French Resistance
.

Early life: medical training and member of the French Resistance

Schepens was born in

Belgian Air Force.[3]

After the fall of Belgium, Schepens escaped to France where he became active in the French Resistance smuggling documents and people over the Pyrenees to Spain during 1942 and 1943.[3] Schepens was twice captured by the Gestapo.[3] He worked under the alias of Jacques Perot, a lumber mill operator in the French Basque village of Mendive.[5] Aware that the Germans had learned of the operation, he escaped to England.[5]

Ophthalmologist, retinal specialist, and inventor

After the war, Schepens resumed his medical career at Moorfields.

Retina Foundation, in 1950. Now known as the Schepens Eye Research Institute, it is affiliated with Harvard[3] and the Massachusetts General Hospital. It has grown from 6 staff initially to 200 as of 2006,[6] and at that time was the largest independent eye research organization in the United States. In 2011, the institute combined with the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.[7]

In 1967, Schepens founded The Retina Society and was its first president from 1968 to 1969.[2]

Schepens invented the

binocular indirect ophthalmoscope (BIO), which is routinely used to look at the retina. His original BIO is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.[2] It has been reported that Schepens assembled the prototype for his BIO from metal scraps collected from the streets of London during the German blitz.[8] He was also a pioneer of surgical techniques such as scleral buckling for the repair of retinal detachments. The use of these techniques has raised the success of retinal reattachment surgery from 40% to 90%.[3] During his career, Schepens wrote four books and over 340 research papers.[3]

Awards and recognition

In 1999, Schepens was chosen by the

French Legion of Honour award for smuggling over 100 people from France into Spain.[5]

His life's story has been told in Meg Ostrum's 2004 book, "The Surgeon and the Shepherd: Two Resistance Heroes in Vichy France".[9] In 2006, Schepens died of a stroke at the age of 94.[5]

In 2013, a biographical profile of Dr. Schepens was included in a bestselling book called Saving Sight: An eye surgeon's look at life behind the mask and the heroes who changed the way we see, by Andrew Lam (author), M.D.[10]

References

  1. ^ Thiery M (2008). "Charles Louis Schepens (1912–2006) en het criswick-schepenssyndroom". Tijdschrift boor Geneeskunde. 64 (7): 373.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "33rd Annual Meeting" (PDF). The Retina Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 21, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n American Academy of Ophthalmology. 2003 Laureate Award Archived June 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on January 31, 2005. Retrieved April 7, 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ a b c d "War-hero eye surgeon dies at 94". Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine IrishExaminer.com. April 6, 2006.
  6. ^ New England Ophthalmological Society. "Charles L. Schepens, M.D." Archived from the original on October 9, 2007. Retrieved April 6, 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Adapted from NEOS biography by Hal M. Freeman.
  7. ^ Schepens Eye Research Institute. "History – Schepens Eye Research Institute". Archived from the original on October 4, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2017. History – Schepens Eye Research Institute
  8. ^ HistoryWired: A few of our favorite things Archived September 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ISBN 978-0-8032-3573-1
    .
  10. ISBN 978-1-6172-0379-4

External links
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