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Dominique Jean Larrey

 
Dominique Jean Larrey

 
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Dominique Jean Larrey (8 July, 1766 – 25 July, 1842) was a French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 surgeon
Surgery

Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason....
 in Napoleon
Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte later known as Emperor Napoleon I, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century....
's army and an important innovator in battlefield medicine
Battlefield medicine

Battlefield medicine, also called field surgery and more recently combat casualty care, is the treatment of wounded soldiers in or near an area of combat....
.

ey was born in the little village of Beaudéan
Beaudéan

Beaud?an is a village and Communes of the Hautes-Pyr?n?es department in the Hautes-Pyr?n?es departments of France of south-western France....
, in the Pyrenees
Pyrenees

The Pyrenees are a mountain range in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain. They separate the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe, and extend for about from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean Sea ....
 to bourgeois parents, who later moved to Bordeaux
Bordeaux

is a Port city on the Garonne in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its aire urbaine at a 2008 estimate. It is the Capital of the Aquitaine regions of France, as well as the Prefectures in France of the Gironde Departments of France....
. Larrey was orphaned at the age of 13. He was then raised by his uncle Alexis, who was chief surgeon in Toulouse
Toulouse

Toulouse is a commune of France in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea....
. After serving a 6-year apprenticeship, he went to Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 to study under the great Desault, who was chief surgeon at the Hôtel Dieu.






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Dominique Jean Larrey (8 July, 1766 – 25 July, 1842) was a French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 surgeon
Surgery

Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason....
 in Napoleon
Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte later known as Emperor Napoleon I, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century....
's army and an important innovator in battlefield medicine
Battlefield medicine

Battlefield medicine, also called field surgery and more recently combat casualty care, is the treatment of wounded soldiers in or near an area of combat....
.

Biography

Larrey was born in the little village of Beaudéan
Beaudéan

Beaud?an is a village and Communes of the Hautes-Pyr?n?es department in the Hautes-Pyr?n?es departments of France of south-western France....
, in the Pyrenees
Pyrenees

The Pyrenees are a mountain range in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain. They separate the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe, and extend for about from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean Sea ....
 to bourgeois parents, who later moved to Bordeaux
Bordeaux

is a Port city on the Garonne in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its aire urbaine at a 2008 estimate. It is the Capital of the Aquitaine regions of France, as well as the Prefectures in France of the Gironde Departments of France....
. Larrey was orphaned at the age of 13. He was then raised by his uncle Alexis, who was chief surgeon in Toulouse
Toulouse

Toulouse is a commune of France in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea....
. After serving a 6-year apprenticeship, he went to Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 to study under the great Desault, who was chief surgeon at the Hôtel Dieu. His studies were cut short by war.

Larrey was surgeon-in-chief of the Napoleonic armies from Italy in 1797 to Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo

In the Battle of Waterloo forces of the First French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte and Michel Ney were defeated by those of the Seventh Coalition, including a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Bl?cher and an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington....
 in 1815. During this time, he initiated the modern method of army surgery, field hospitals and the system of army ambulance corps. After seeing the speed with which the carriages of the French flying artillery maneuvered across the battlefields, Larrey adapted them as for rapid transport of the wounded and manned them with trained crews of drivers, corpsmen and litterbearers. Larrey also increased the mobility and improved the organization of field hospitals, effectively creating a forerunner of the modern MASH
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital

The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital refers to a United States Army medical unit serving as a fully functional hospital in a combat area of operations....
 units. He established a rule for the triage of war casualties, treating the wounded according to the seriousness of their injuries and urgency of need for medical care, regardless of their rank or nationality. Soldiers of enemy armies, as well as those of the French and their allies, were treated.

A favorite of the Emperor, who commented, 'If the army ever erects a monument to express its gratitude, it should do so in honor of Larrey', he was ennobled as a Baron
Baron

Baron is a specific title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English language beorn meaning "nobleman."...
 on the field of Wagram
Battle of Wagram

In the Battle of Wagram Napoleon I of France's First French Empire forces defeated Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen Austrian Empire army, near Vienna, effectively bringing the War of the Fifth Coalition to an end....
 in 1809.

At Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo

In the Battle of Waterloo forces of the First French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte and Michel Ney were defeated by those of the Seventh Coalition, including a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Bl?cher and an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington....
 in 1815 his courage under fire was noticed by the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Order of the Garter, Order of St Patrick, Order of the Bath, Royal Guelphic Order, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Royal Society , was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the nineteenth century....
 who ordered his soldiers not to fire in his direction so as to 'give the brave man time to gather up the wounded' and saluted 'the courage and devotion of an age that is no longer ours'. Larrey was taken prisoner by the Prussians and condemned to death. However, he was recognized by one of the German surgeons, who pleaded for his life. Perhaps partly because he had saved the life of Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Gebhard Leberecht von Bl?cher, F?rst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to F?rst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington....
's son when he was wounded and taken prisoner by the French, he was pardoned and taken back to France under escort. He devoted the remainder of his life to writing and a civilian medical career. Baron Larrey led the surgical team that performed a pre-anesthetic mastectomy, in Paris in 1811, for Frances Burney.

He died on July 25, 1842 in Lyon
Lyon

||-||}Lyon, also known as Lyons in English, is a city in east-central France. Its name is pronounced in French language and Franco-Proven?al language, and or in English language....
.

Often considered the first modern military surgeon, Larrey's writings are still regarded as valuable sources of surgical and medical knowledge and have been translated into all modern languages.

Detailed References



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