Puchkov, Filatov, Sklifosovsky. Outstanding Moscow doctors and their accomplishments

Healthcare professionals are at the forefront of combating COVID-19. Despite fatigue and lack of sleep, they are saving lives 24/7. Doctors are true heroes of our time.

Healthcare workers have always been devoted and loyal to their craft. For example, Leonid Vorokhobov who headed Moscow Healthcare Department in the 20th century, is famous for numerous surgeries he made even at night-time. Another Moscow doctor — Nil Filatov — helped children. He brought medicines, and even toys and food to poor families. The article by mos.ru tells about accomplishments and deeds of renowned Moscow doctors.

Alexander Puchkov: made first aid care available to anyone in Moscow

The future reformer of the Moscow first aid system was born in 1887. Alexander Puchkov followed in his father's footsteps and graduated as a MD from Moscow University.

Puchkov provided emergency care as a Red Cross military doctor in the early WWI. Later, he volunteered for frontline duty, and during the Civil War he was in charge of sanitary and military trains. When the typhus epidemic broke out in Moscow in 1921, it was Puchkov who managed the centre to combat the disease. For two years, its doctors had transported more than 700,000 patients. Puchkov recalled that time as his best young days.

In 1923, the young doctor headed the First Aid Station at Sheremetevskaya Hospital, the only one in Moscow, and started to reform the system. Before that, only officials could call an ambulance. Moreover, it could arrive in the street only, doctors never came home to patients. Puchkov changed the rules and regulations, introduced new positions and increased the number of cars.

Since 1926, Moscow citizens could call an ambulance to arrive right to their homes. First ambulances were motorbikes with sidecars, later replaced by special vehicles. This was the first experience of providing such a service not only in the Soviet Union, but also in the world. A year later, emergency care for mental patients was launched. Later, there was a pediatric consultation centre opened, and a service for eliminating causes of accidents, road accidents and domestic injuries.

EMS became an independent facility in 1940, when Puchkov worked on an ambulance's upgrade. The doctor used to spend much of the time at the design office. Safe transportation of patients was a key priority, so the carriage body was redesigned over and over again. In 1947, new white cars with a red cross on hit the Moscow streets.

Alexander Puchkov managed EMS until he died in 1952. Moscow's First Aid Station is named after him.

Grigory Zakharyin: introduced a multi-stage patient intake

Grigory Zakharyin, well-known throughout Moscow as the doctor who can treat any disease, was born in Penza to the family of a nobleman of distinguished descent. In 1852, Grigory Zakharyin graduated from the Medical Department of Moscow University and stayed there to work as an intern of the Department's therapeutic clinic. In 1885, he received the title of Professor Emeritus of Moscow University. In 1894, he already treated Emperor Alexander III in Livadia. Tuberculosis Clinical Hospital No.3 is named after him.

Zakharyin made a big contribution to the development of an anamnestic patient survey method, consisting in the multi-stage patient intake. It allowed to have a complete picture of the disease progress and risk factors. Besides, he proved the interrelation between the skin and internal organs (almost simultaneously with the neurologist Henry Ged and independently of each other). So, certain skin areas become painful and highly sensitive when a particular organ is unwell. Zakharyin's lectures and research papers were reprinted many times, including English, French and German translations. Grigory Zakharyin was a respected physician, with Leo Tolstoy among his patients. At the same time, contemporaries pointed out some disadvantageous features of the outstanding physician and therapist. The founder of the Moscow clinical school was intolerable to his colleagues and greedy, as he made his rich patients pay huge bills.

However, Zakharyin spent this money for charity he had been engaged in all his life. He built an outpatient clinic for peasants in the village of Virga in Saratov province and the Zakharyin Hospital near Moscow. Annually, he allocated funds to help needy students of Moscow University and donated a large amount of money to the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.

Zakharyin died of a stroke and left his entire fortune to his son Sergei. He outlived his father by less than 10 years. After Sergei's death, Grigory Zakharyin's wife and daughter decided to build the Clinical and Scientific Centre of Moscow University in 1914 in their estate in Kurkino.

Nil Filatov: developed a method for examining children

Nil Filatov, the future founder of the Russian pediatric school, was a student of Grigory Zakharyin. In the 19th century, there was no research on children's diseases. It wasn’t before the 1870s that pediatrics became an independent science, thanks to Filatov's research, too.

After graduating from the Medical Department of Moscow University, he worked as a district doctor in his native Saransk district, and then he practiced and studied children's diseases in clinics in Vienna, Prague and Heidelberg. In 1875, Nil Filatov returned to Moscow and worked at the Children's Hospital in Bronnaya Street — first as an extern and intern, and later as a Consulting Professor. The doctor also delivered lectures at the Medical Department of Moscow University.

Filatov studied the issues of infant mortality and the impact of infectious diseases on it. He described, diagnosed, and developed methods to treat measles, scarlet fever, and diphtheria. The doctor sought to identify early symptoms, substantiated manifestations of lingering flu, hidden malaria in infants, and identified chickenpox as a separate disease. Nil Filatov was one of the first to use anti-diphtheria serum.

In addition, he developed a diagram for systematic and consistent children's examination unavailable before. Doctors were instructed to find out as many details as possible: conditions a young patient lives in, how a disease was developing, a patient's diet, with unpleasant and painful procedures taking place only at the end of the examination.

Filatov also conducted open consultations of patients with young doctors invited. His lectures attracted many attendees, students and medical practitioners. Like other doctors, he told about proper diet, education, and child care. According to his contemporaries, he often brought medicines, toys and food when he saw that the family was in need. That was one of the reasons they called him a children's friend.

Children's City Clinical Hospital No.13, the first children's hospital in Moscow, opened in 1842 in Malaya Bronnaya Street, was named after Nil Filatov in 1922. After the fire of 1883, the hospital moved to Sadovo-Kudrinskaya Street. There is a monument to the children's doctor in the public garden of Devichye Pole.

Nikolai Sklifosovsky: one of the first doctors to perform abdominal surgeries.

The most prominent Russian surgeon and an outstanding scientist was born in 1836 in Tiraspol district of Kherson province. Sklifosovsky studied at the Medical Department of Moscow University. Reportedly, he fainted at the sight of blood during the first surgery he saw, but the second surgery went well. After graduating from the University as a Ph.D, Sklifosovsky worked at the Odessa City Hospital.

The future scientist was introduced to advanced surgical schools in 1866, when he went on a business trip to Germany, France and England. In the 1870s, Sklifosovsky worked as a Professor at Kiev University and at the Military Medical Academy in Saint Petersburg. In 1880, he headed the subdepartment of the Department's surgery clinic at the Medical Department of Moscow University. Between 1882 and 1888, he was the Dean of the Medical Department.

He also helped at the frontline a lot. Nikolai Sklifosovsky worked in 1876 in Montenegro as a consultant to the Red Cross and during the Russian-Turkish War. He arranged surgical care in hospitals, and performed surgeries.

Sklifosovsky's research papers contributed a lot to the development of the Russian medical science. Thanks to him, dentistry was added to the curriculum of higher medical schools as a separate science, and hospitals began to keep patient case records. He also endeavoured to introduce antiseptics into Russian surgery, being one of the first doctors to perform abdominal surgeries (they were rare for fear of infection).

In total, Sklifosovsky wrote 114 research papers. He died in 1904. The Moscow Emergency Care Institute was named after him (now Sklifosovsky Research Institute for Emergency Medicine).

Leonid Vorokhobov: managed Moscow's healthcare system for more than 20 years

This prominent children's surgeon, who was in charge of the Moscow healthcare system for more than 20 years, was born in 1920 in the city of Lepel in the Belarusian SSR. Leonid Vorokhobov entered the 3rd Moscow Medical Institute (now Moscow Yevdokimov State Medical and Dental University), but when the Great Patriotic War started, he was assigned to the Sovetsky district's fighter battalion. It wasn’t before January 1942 that the would-be doctor could resume his studies, but this time at the First Moscow Medical Institute (now the First Moscow Sechenov State Medical University).

After graduation, Leonid Vorokhobov started working as a medical laboratory scientist at the Institute of Healthcare and History of Medicine of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. At the same time, he was in charge of the Surgical Department at the Filatov Children's Hospital. The doctor was well-known for his numerous surgeries performed in all areas. He was often called to the hospital at night for emergencies and worked many night shifts. In 1959, Vorokhobov headed the Filatov Children's Hospital.

The management appreciated his administrative skills, and in 1965 the doctor was appointed Head of the Moscow City Healthcare Department. Since 1968, the Department was the Main Healthcare Department of the Moscow City Executive Committee. Vorokhobov managed Moscow's healthcare system for 21 years, with more than 80 new wings with 24,500 beds and 137 clinics built and opened. Leonid Vorokhobov took part in the healthcare reorganisation. Technological infrastructure was improved in hospitals, with consulting and diagnostics centres and intensive care units opened, the emergency care system upgraded, specialised bracnhes developed (cardiology, pulmonology, oncology, addictology, and nephrology). The system of postgraduate training of healthcare workers was also improved in Moscow.

Leonid Vorokhobov was engaged in scientific work, too. He published 46 research papers and two monographs. Also, he participated in international conferences and congresses.

Besides, he supported the construction of City Clinical Hospital No.67. Today, students come here to train and develop their skills, with advanced solutions implemented, and new treatment technologies mastered. The hospital was named after Leonid Vorokhobov in 2011.