[How I became the first anesthesiologist in Saint Pierre Hospital in Brussels in 1947].
Dr Cantinieaux Duwaerts graduated from Brussels Free University (ULB) medical school right after second world war during which she had to attend clandestine classes : The ULB was indeed forced to close in 1941 for its refusal to comply with the German occupants request to dismiss jewish teachers. She performed anesthesia first as a medical student, using ether and ethyl chloride and, when graduated, went to the Netherlands and Sweden in order to get further training in anesthesia, where she got familiar to the techniques of tracheal intubation and to the use of thiopentone and muscle relaxation. Back in Brussels in autumn 1947 she was the first and only anesthesiologist in Saint-Pierre Hospital where she started providing anesthesia for thoracic surgical procedures. At that time she had to supervise several operating rooms at the same time, leaving her patients after induction to the care of a medical student. She also worked in private clinics since the hospital was only offering her a part time job. After 1953 she dedicated herself to a full time anesthesia private practice until 1968 when she decided to retire from anesthesia : most of her surgeons had died and she found a job as medical consultant at the Royal Library.
Cantinieaux Duwaerts
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D000758:Anesthesia / Q000266:history; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000639:trends*; D001530:Belgium; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans