Johannes Fatio (14 June 1649 – 28 September 1691) was a Swiss

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

who worked in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (B ...

. He performed the first successful separation of

conjoined twins Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are twins joined ''Uterus, in utero''. A very rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher in ...

in 1689. He was publicly executed two years later for his role in the 1691 Basel revolution.

Biography

Johannes Fatio was born on 14 June 1649 in

to Johann Anton Fatio, a merchant, and Christina Henricpetri. His father was of Italian Protestant descent and his mother came from a well known Basel family. Fatio enrolled in medicine at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universiti ...

in 1662, aged 13, but never studied there. He completed an apprenticeship as a

barber surgeon The barber surgeon, one of the most common European medical practitioners of the Middle Ages, was generally charged with caring for soldiers during and after battle. In this era, surgery was seldom conducted by physicians, but instead by barbe ...

and was admitted to a barber surgeon's guild in 1672. Fatio befriended Johann Heinrich Glaser, a professor of medicine, with whom he performed dissections and surgical demonstrations on cadavers at the University of Basel. After Glaser's death in 1675, Fatio completed a medical degree at the French

University of Valence The University of Valence was founded 26 July 1452, by letters patent from the Dauphin Louis, afterwards Louis XI of France, in a move to develop the city of Valence, then part of his domain of Dauphiné. It existed until the French Revolution. ...

. Upon his return to Basel in 1678, his application for recognition as a qualified physician was denied because Basel did not recognise foreign degrees. Despite his unofficial standing, he established a successful surgical and

obstetric Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a ...

practice in Basel over the next decade. Fatio was an innovator in

paediatric surgery Pediatric surgery is a subspecialty of surgery involving the surgery of fetuses, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. History Pediatric surgery arose in the middle of the 1879 century as the surgical care of birth defects required ...

, describing procedures for numerous birth defects including

hypospadias Hypospadias is a common variation in fetal development of the penis in which the urethra does not open from its usual location in the head of the penis. It is the second-most common birth abnormality of the male reproductive system, affecting ab ...

imperforate hymen An imperforate hymen is a congenital disorder where a hymen without an opening completely obstructs the vagina. It is caused by a failure of the hymen to perforate during fetal development. It is most often diagnosed in adolescent girls when men ...

, exomphalos and

imperforate anus An imperforate anus or anorectal malformations (ARMs) are birth defects in which the rectum is malformed. ARMs are a spectrum of different congenital anomalies which vary from fairly minor lesions to complex anomalies. The cause of ARMs is unkno ...

. His writings (published posthumously) also provides advice on resuscitating newborn babies with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. In 1690, Fatio joined a secret committee of discontented Basel citizens planning to rebel against the Basel parliament. When members of this revolutionary committee were appointed to parliament in 1691, Fatio was charged with rewriting the Basel constitution; his new constitution was extremely progressive. Counter-revolutionaries captured him on 21 September 1691, imprisoning and torturing him. He was publicly executed by beheading a week later on 28 September 1691.

Separation of conjoined twins

Fatio performed the first successful separation of

in 1689. The female twins, born to Clementia Meijerin on 23 November 1689 in a village near Basel, were first taken to physician Samuel Braun, who consulted Fatio. Fatio in turn consulted several other physicians including Nikolaus Eglinger, regarded as the official physician of the city of Basel, and

Theodor Zwinger Theodor Zwinger the Elder (2 August 1533 – 10 March 1588) was a Swiss physician and Renaissance humanist scholar. He made significant contributions to the emerging genres of reference and travel literature. He was the first distinguished repr ...

. Many doctors and high-profile members of Basel society were witness to the separation procedure. The separation of the twins, who were joined at the

xiphoid process The xiphoid process , or xiphisternum or metasternum, is a small cartilaginous process (extension) of the inferior (lower) part of the sternum, which is usually ossified in the adult human. It may also be referred to as the ensiform process. Bo ...

, was performed by ligature in three stages over nine days. After the separation, Fatio and Braun each cared for one twin, and each stump was said to have healed within ten days. The first case report was published by physician Emanuel König in 1689. Multiple contemporaneous reports, including Zwinger's 1690 recount, credit Fatio as the surgeon who performed the separation. Fatio's own account was only published in 1752, 61 years after his death, as part of an

handbook aimed at

midwives A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; c ...

titled ''Der Arzney Doctor, Helvetisch-Vernünftiche Wehe-Mutter''. It was the only manuscript of Fatio's that was not burned by authorities at the time of his arrest and subsequent execution.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fatio, Johannes 1649 births 1691 deaths 17th-century surgeons 17th-century Swiss physicians Swiss surgeons Physicians from Basel-Stadt