Early Career
In 1917, he began work at the Accident Hospital in Konigshutte. It was here where Guttmann met his first patient with a spinal cord injury (paraplegia), a young badly-injured coalminer. Sadly the miner died five weeks later from sepsis. In April 1918, he began his medical studies at the University of Breslau. Guttmann left in the Spring of 1919 to study at the University of Freiburg and received his Doctorate of Medicine in 1924.
By 1933, Guttmann was considered the top neurosurgeon in Germany. With the arrival of the Nazis in power, Jews were banned from practising medicine professionally and he was allowed to work only at the Jewish Hospital in Breslau, where he became director of the hospital. Following the violent attacks on Jewish people and properties during Kristallnacht on 9 November 1938, Guttmann ordered his staff to admit anyone without question. The following day he justified his decision on a case-by-case basis with the Gestapo. Out of 64 admissions, 60 patients were saved from arrest and deportation to concentration camps.
Read more about this topic: Ludwig Guttmann
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