Vera Gedroits

Pioneering female surgeon who revolutionized battlefield medicine during WWI

Princess Vera Gedroits (1870-1932), a Russian-Lithuanian surgeon, changed military medical protocols forever. After graduating from Switzerland's University of Lausanne in 1898 (when only 2% of European doctors were women), she introduced life-saving laparotomies to front-line treatment.

During the 1904 Russo-Japanese War, Gedroits performed the first battlefield abdominal surgeries in mobile field hospitals. Her methods reduced mortality rates by 40% compared to standard practices. Despite resistance from male colleagues, her triage system became official Russian army policy in 1915.

Beyond surgery, she authored critical medical textbooks and served as personal physician to the Romanov family. Gedroits' legacy lives on in modern trauma care protocols that prioritize immediate surgical intervention.