Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Charles Schepens

2006; Elsevier BV; Volume: 367; Issue: 9527 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0140-6736(06)68869-7

1474-547X

Ivan Oransky,

Medical History and Innovations

Pioneering ophthalmologist and Belgian resistance fighter. He was born on March 13, 1912, in Mouscron, Belgium, and died on March 28, 2006, after a stroke in Salem, MA, USA, aged 94 years.Charles Schepens was a 28-year-old ophthalmologist in Brussels when Hitler invaded and annexed Belgium in May, 1940. In October of that year, two Nazi officers arrested him for owning a bus used to transport Allied pilots out of the country, Meg Ostrum recounts in her 2004 book The Surgeon and the Shepherd. He was released after 10 days, but the episode triggered his decision to join the Belgian resistance.At the start, Schepens' activities were limited. “Every few weeks a Flemish-speaking ‘patient’ would make an appointment and bring along a brown satchel filled with secret documents that the ophthalmologist hid in the thick ivy on the wall at the rear of the property until [resistance network member Anselme] Vernieuwe could retrieve it”, Ostrum wrote. This and other activities soon attracted the attention of the Nazi occupiers, and the Schepens family—Charles, his wife Cette, and their two children, Claire and Luc—fled to Paris in April, 1942. It was there that Schepens reconnected with Cyrille Pomerantzeff, a childhood friend, and assumed a new name, Jacques Perot. The two went on to buy and reopen a shuttered sawmill in Mendive, in the Pyrenees, which would become a haven for French Basque workers and a vital stop on the French underground. The work, and the remote lifestyle, suited him. “At the time I even had the idea that I could spend the balance of my life there, give up medicine, and get a diploma from some forestry department”, Schepens recalled to Ostrum decades later.That was not to be, however. In the middle of 1943, the Nazis learned what was going on at the mill. Schepens was able to escape and fled through Spain, eventually arriving in London, where he resumed his career in ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital, where he had trained before the war. It was there that Schepens developed the piece of instrumentation for which he is most noted: the binocular indirect ophthalmoscope, which allows surgeons a stereoscopic view of the retina. The work that Schepens and his co-workers did over the next few years eventually increased the success of retinal reattachment from 40% to 90%, according to Claes Henrik Dohlman, a cornea researcher at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, USA. “It was very much due to the fact that he had constructed a binocular ophthalmoscope that made it easy to examine the periphery of the retina.”Schepens emigrated to the USA in 1947 to become an ophthalmological research fellow at Harvard Medical School. He continued to develop new techniques and procedures, including vitreous microscissors that allow surgeons to snip away at the vitreous so it does not pull on the retina, which can lead to a detached retina, according to Michael Gilmore, director of the Harvard-affiliated eye research institute that bears Schepens' name. Schepens also pioneered the “open sky approach” for repairing the retina in cases of retinopathy of prematurity, and silicone rubber scleral buckling, which creates tension that closes a damaged retina and allows fluid to drain. Schepens mixed his background in mathematics with his experience in clinical medicine to great effect, said longtime family friend Francois Delori, who would become a colleague in the 1970s. For example, after realising that gravity could be used to help surgeons reattach retinas, Schepens had a colleague build a table that would keep patients upside-down during procedures. “He always made hypotheses to be tested”, Delori said. “He challenged you to prove or disprove something. He asked you a question rather than explaining too many things.”Schepens established the Retina Foundation in 1950. “It started out as a fledgling operation that was ancillary to his clinical practice”, Gilmore said. “Through his leadership he established it as an independent research entity.” In the early 1990s, it was renamed the Schepens Eye Research Institute and became part of Harvard Medical School, but it remains financially independent. “It's the largest independent vision research institute in the world”, Gilmore said.“He was a true leader”, said Dohlman, who worked with Schepens since the 1950s. “He was a very decent man to work with and for, and he was very loyal to his disciples and his collaborators, and he had a sort of a sense for where the important things were and the need to get there, and the right people to recruit. He had a role in ophthalmology in general that was truly gigantic. Very few people during the 20th century reached his level of accomplishment and fame.” Schepens was awarded the French Legion of Honour a week before his death. He is survived by his wife and four children, Claire Delori, Luc, Bernadette Butler, and Catherine Rojas. Pioneering ophthalmologist and Belgian resistance fighter. He was born on March 13, 1912, in Mouscron, Belgium, and died on March 28, 2006, after a stroke in Salem, MA, USA, aged 94 years. Charles Schepens was a 28-year-old ophthalmologist in Brussels when Hitler invaded and annexed Belgium in May, 1940. In October of that year, two Nazi officers arrested him for owning a bus used to transport Allied pilots out of the country, Meg Ostrum recounts in her 2004 book The Surgeon and the Shepherd. He was released after 10 days, but the episode triggered his decision to join the Belgian resistance. At the start, Schepens' activities were limited. “Every few weeks a Flemish-speaking ‘patient’ would make an appointment and bring along a brown satchel filled with secret documents that the ophthalmologist hid in the thick ivy on the wall at the rear of the property until [resistance network member Anselme] Vernieuwe could retrieve it”, Ostrum wrote. This and other activities soon attracted the attention of the Nazi occupiers, and the Schepens family—Charles, his wife Cette, and their two children, Claire and Luc—fled to Paris in April, 1942. It was there that Schepens reconnected with Cyrille Pomerantzeff, a childhood friend, and assumed a new name, Jacques Perot. The two went on to buy and reopen a shuttered sawmill in Mendive, in the Pyrenees, which would become a haven for French Basque workers and a vital stop on the French underground. The work, and the remote lifestyle, suited him. “At the time I even had the idea that I could spend the balance of my life there, give up medicine, and get a diploma from some forestry department”, Schepens recalled to Ostrum decades later. That was not to be, however. In the middle of 1943, the Nazis learned what was going on at the mill. Schepens was able to escape and fled through Spain, eventually arriving in London, where he resumed his career in ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital, where he had trained before the war. It was there that Schepens developed the piece of instrumentation for which he is most noted: the binocular indirect ophthalmoscope, which allows surgeons a stereoscopic view of the retina. The work that Schepens and his co-workers did over the next few years eventually increased the success of retinal reattachment from 40% to 90%, according to Claes Henrik Dohlman, a cornea researcher at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, USA. “It was very much due to the fact that he had constructed a binocular ophthalmoscope that made it easy to examine the periphery of the retina.” Schepens emigrated to the USA in 1947 to become an ophthalmological research fellow at Harvard Medical School. He continued to develop new techniques and procedures, including vitreous microscissors that allow surgeons to snip away at the vitreous so it does not pull on the retina, which can lead to a detached retina, according to Michael Gilmore, director of the Harvard-affiliated eye research institute that bears Schepens' name. Schepens also pioneered the “open sky approach” for repairing the retina in cases of retinopathy of prematurity, and silicone rubber scleral buckling, which creates tension that closes a damaged retina and allows fluid to drain. Schepens mixed his background in mathematics with his experience in clinical medicine to great effect, said longtime family friend Francois Delori, who would become a colleague in the 1970s. For example, after realising that gravity could be used to help surgeons reattach retinas, Schepens had a colleague build a table that would keep patients upside-down during procedures. “He always made hypotheses to be tested”, Delori said. “He challenged you to prove or disprove something. He asked you a question rather than explaining too many things.” Schepens established the Retina Foundation in 1950. “It started out as a fledgling operation that was ancillary to his clinical practice”, Gilmore said. “Through his leadership he established it as an independent research entity.” In the early 1990s, it was renamed the Schepens Eye Research Institute and became part of Harvard Medical School, but it remains financially independent. “It's the largest independent vision research institute in the world”, Gilmore said. “He was a true leader”, said Dohlman, who worked with Schepens since the 1950s. “He was a very decent man to work with and for, and he was very loyal to his disciples and his collaborators, and he had a sort of a sense for where the important things were and the need to get there, and the right people to recruit. He had a role in ophthalmology in general that was truly gigantic. Very few people during the 20th century reached his level of accomplishment and fame.” Schepens was awarded the French Legion of Honour a week before his death. He is survived by his wife and four children, Claire Delori, Luc, Bernadette Butler, and Catherine Rojas.