Georgy L. Ratner, Soviet and Russian Surgeon, Cardio-Vascular Surgeon, Professor

Georgy L Ratner, Honored Scientist of Russia, Academician of Russian Medical Technique Academy, Honored Citizen of Samara City, Veteran of Second World War, Head of Faculty Surgery Chair of Samara State Medical University died on November the 3rd, 2001. It is hard to realise that this wise, strong man with the young soul now lives in our hearts only.

Georgy L Ratner was born on September 1st, 1923 in Ekaterinburg. His father was a well-known surgeon. After the young Ratner entered Moscow Energetic Institute, the Second World War began. He had finished the Odessa Artillery Courses and was called up to the front. During the war he was the Commanding Officer of a Reconnaissance Platoon. He had been wounded several times and was awarded with numerous orders and medals. In 1949 Georgy L. Ratner had graduated with honours from the Sverdlovsk High Medical School, then he took a postgraduate course in surgery under Professor Academician A. P. Lidsky

For the next three years Ratner successfully worked as the Head of a Surgical Department in Komsomolsk-upon-Amur. From 1954-1962 he worked as an assistant professor in Chelyabinsk High Medical School. During these years he became interested in thoracic and vascular surgery. He had founded the first specialized department of surgery in the Ural Region that performed operations on lungs, heart, and esophagus. In 1955 Ratner defended a dissertation on the reconstructive surgery of blood vessels. Later he wrote several fundamental monographs, including "Plastics of Blood Vessels" (1959), "Reconstructive Surgery of Aorta and Magistral Vessels" (1965), "Blood Vessels Diseases" (1969).

In 1962 Professor Ratner was elected as Head of Faculty Surgery Chair in Samara State Medical University. He held this position for 39 years. During his tenure many investigations on cardiovascular surgery, artificial blood circulation, surgery of lungs and esophagus, stomach and gallbladder and treatment of symptomatic arterial hypertension were carried out under his supervision. G.L. Ratner has to his credit some 15 inventions.

"Wise, Courage and Charity" is a motto written on the emblem of the Clinic. These are qualities that G.L. Ratner lived by. There are 33 Doctors of Science and 91 PhDs in Scientific School of G.L. Ratner. Some of them are now heads of medical chairs in Moscow, Ekaterinburg, Tumen, and other cities of Russia. More than 100 surgeons have finished their postgraduate training under his guidance. The students loved Georgy L. Ratner for his erudition and his wittiness. Even the difficult topics became easy and clear in his lectures. And they always commanded rapt attention.

Professor Ratner was well known in Russia and all over the World. Many times he was invited to the medical Academies and Institutes in Vladivostok, Ekaterinburg, Volgograd and other cities. He gave lectures in Netherlands, Japan, and the USA, and demonstrated his surgical methods in Sweden and France. He edited 10 monographs, including "Extracorporal Circulation" (1965), "Hyperbaric Oxygenation" (1979), and "Surgery of Aorta and Arteries" (1982). Georgy Lvovich was highly versatile man. He was a good sportsman, and understood music and theatre perfectly. He published a witty and wise book series - "Lector's Skills", "Surgery Is My Profession", "How To Stay Young", "How to Leave a Hospital Alive", and 4 volumes of aphorisms. "I wouldn't die if you will read my books", - he had written this in May.

Fortune has not been always benevolent to him, but he was always able to struggle against the difficulties and to go forward. He was awarded seven Russian orders, numerous medals and the Big Silver Medal of Cambridge for a series of works on cardiovascular surgery. For 15 years he was Head of the Surgical Society of Samara City, Honored Citizen of Samara City, Honored Member of the Russian Surgery Society, Honored Scientist of Russia, Honored Member of AMA and the Swedish Society "Aorta", Honored Professor of Samara State Medical University, Osaka University, Ural Medical Academy, member of numerous surgical societies. His biography has been published in a book "500 Leaders" published in USA. In 1996 G.L. Ratner was awarded the international prize "Gold Academic Oscar". In 1999 he was awarded the International Prize of T.I. Eroshevsky, and in 2000, the Government Prize. He was called a "Human of Region" as a result of referendum in 2001. Georgy L. Ratner wrote in one of his books "Well, I am getting old, but my soul still burns, fervents, loves, dreams". Young, active, vigorous - he lives now in our hearts 100 years past his born