Ioannis Chrysospathis–Doctor

Ioannis Chrysospathis was born in 1873 in Kalamata and studied medicine in Leipzig. In 1895, he received the title of doctor and then specialised in Orthopaedics in Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna and Paris, close to outstanding personalities of the time. He was the first qualified Greek orthopaedic surgeon and the first to apply in Kalamata the latest medical discoveries, which were followed in Europe, especially in surgery, as well as the dressing of wounds with cotton.

In 1901, he returned to Athens, where he began to apply modern orthopaedic operations for the time while, at the same time, maintaining a workshop where he manufactured personalised splints, as well as a radiology laboratory. In 1908, Ioannis Chrysospathis defended his thesis "On chronic ankylosing spondylitis" and was elected Professor of Pediatric Orthopaedics and Surgery at the University of Athens. In 1925, he was elected full Professor of Orthopaedics, and between 1926 and 1938, he was director of the Hippocratic Hospital of Athens. His book entitled "Ortopediki" (1932) was the first Greek book on orthopaedics. Ioannis Chrysospathis died in 1938 at the age of 65.