Oscar Otto Rudolf Schwidetzky

Background

Oscar was born on December 31, 1874 in Konitz, Germany (now Chojnice, Poland), the son of August Schwidetzky and Fredericke Mohnka.

Education

After leaving the German army in 1897, Schwidetzky studied sales and marketing by attending night school and reading medical instrument catalogs and medical journals.

Career

At the age of fourteen Schwidetzky began a four-year apprenticeship to Julius Martiny, a maker of surgical and dental instruments in Berlin. He worked with other instrument makers in Berlin, Crefield, and Aix-la-Chapelle, learning orthopedics during this period. His skills enabled him, in 1898, to obtain a position as a salesman for the German medical instrument maker Hermann Windler.

In 1900 Schwidetzky immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City, where he improved his English by teaching German at the Berlitz School of Languages. After becoming fluent in English, he became an importer of surgical supplies, including the Bender Ideal bandage, the first elastic bandage made without rubber. Schwidetzky improved this bandage and from it developed the Ace bandage, used where pressure and support are needed.

In 1913 Schwidetzky began a lifelong association with the medical instrument firm of Becton, Dickinson and Company, working closely with Andrew W. Fleischer in spearheading research. He became an American citizen in 1917.

With the invention in 1851 of the Pravaz needle by Charles Gabriel Pravaz, the groundwork had been laid for the development of the hypodermic needle. Made of steel with a hard-rubber body, it became the prototype of numerous syringes and needles over the next century. Schwidetzky claimed in 1943 that about 1910 he had made the first glass-barrel and rubber-bulb syringe for a doctor in Seattle. This syringe evolved in 1916 into the Asepto model, produced by the Becton-Dickinson Company, which became the standard syringe for injecting fluids into the genitourinary system.

Another important syringe Schwidetzky promoted was originally designed by Howard Greeley. Modified in World War I, it was used on wounded soldiers to inject morphine tartrate for relief of pain before medical treatment was available. Called the syrette, this unit was produced by the E. R. Squibb and Sons Company. Schwidetzky understood that the hypodermic needle, which was the only sharp instrument used on conscious patients, had to be constructed to minimize pain during its injection.

In late years he was manager and director of research at Becton-Dickinson. He died in Ramsey, New Jersey.

Achievements

• Oscar Otto Rudolf Schwidetzky excelled as an inventor of devices designed to provide access to the bloodstream to control and fight disease. He made the first glass-barrel and rubber-bulb syringe. Besides, he helped develop the caudal needle for the continuous administration of anesthesia into the spinal column. The cooperation between anesthesiologists and manufacturers of syringes and needles fostered by Schwidetzky led to the popularity of syringe anesthesia in the United States.

Views

Quotations: Schwidetzky's significance was well stated by Leroy D. Vandam: "Probably at every place throughout this country where there are sick and wounded and suffering persons - some product of his medical skill is relieving pain. "

Connections

His first wife, whom he married in 1902, died in 1914. They had one son. In May 1916 Schwidetzky married Anna Hasselhuhn: they had no children.

Father:

August Schwidetzky

Mother:

Fredericke Mohnka

Spouse:

Anna Hasselhuhn

teacher and employer:

Julius Martiny

coworker:

Andrew W. Fleischer

References

• New York Obituaries