ION DEGEN – WORLD’S FIRST SUCCESSFUL REATTACHMENT OF A LIMB

Ion Degen, born in 1925 in the town of Mohyliv-Podilsky, Vinnytsia region, successfully conducted the world’s first reattachment of the patient’s forearm on May 18, 1959. The first surgery of this kind outside of Ukraine took place in Boston in 1962. Degen’s works helped Moscow doctors to conduct similar surgeries. However, after Degen’s departure to Israel in 1977, his name was suppressed in the history of Soviet medicine for ideological reasons.