August 26th 1952 at Copenhagen: ‘Bjørn Ibsen's Day'; A significant event for Anaesthesia

Abstract

A N event well recognized in the history of Anaes- thesia took place in Boston (MA) on 16 October 1846.There, the dentist William Thomas Green Morton, who was also studying medicine at the time, demonstrated the use of ether anaesthesia, allowing a surgical operation for tumour removal from a patient's jaw to proceed pain-free.Another historic event for Anaesthesia producing significant consequences occurred on 26 August 1952 with Danish anaesthetist Bjrn Ibsen (1-3).This was at Copenhagen's Blegdam Hospital, during Denmark's 1952-53 epidemic of acute poliomyelitis (4, 5).On that date (3, 4; but see the Appendix), in the face of considerable scepticism (2, 3), Dr Ibsen demonstrated that he had a solution to offer for the unprecedented number of patients developing, and dying from, severe respiratory complications (1-3).The clinicians treating them by established methods were being overwhelmed (4, 5).Ibsen achieved success by using a technique customarily employed by anaesthetists in their regular operating theatre (OT) work.