ABSTRACT
Before the mass production of penicillin in the 1940s patients with serious spinal injuries rarely survived for more than a few weeks before untreatable infections took hold. Even when penicillin was widely available there was little improvement in the long-term care of the survivors, who were effectively written off by society.
All this began to change when a refugee German Jewish neurosurgeon began work at the then new Stoke Mandeville Spinal Injuries Unit. Ludwig Guttmann had been Germany’s leading neurosurgeon before the Nazis seized power, but fled once the anti-Jewish programmes were launched. The treatment methods he introduced at Stoke Mandeville were revolutionary and controversial – including the introduction of sporting activities for wheelchair users.
When the Summer Games were held in London Guttmann organized the first Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games, basically an archery competition for 16 military veterans. In 1960 the first Paralympic Games were held in Rome immediately following the Rome Summer Games and using the same venues. Another milestone was the first Winter Paralympic Games in Sweden in 1976.
Guttmann was knighted in 1966, and died in 1980. Known by colleagues and patients alike as “Poppa”, he is universally recognized as the “Father of the Paralympics”.
