[Severin Nordentoft--pioner, surgeon, radiologist and writer]

Severin Nordentoft (1866-1922) was born in Aarhus, Denmark and spent most of his time here. He was a self-made surgeon but very skilled and courageous. He treated a patient with Basedows disease with total removal of the thyroid gland in 1894, the first in Denmark, and the patient lived normally 20 years later. Recently he has been recognized, as been the first in the world to construct and use the arthroskope in a knee joint. From 1910 he used most of his time to radiology and especially to radiotherapy and he was one of the forerunners to use radiotherapy in brain tumors- in fact he was the very first to propose it in writing. He suggested 90 years ago preoperative radiotherapy in certain cancer forms which just in the last decennium has been the golden standard. He was however a rather controversial person with a major sense of justice resulting in problems in working with colleagues on the same level. Most of his life he worked in private clinics and when he finally got the job as head of a department of radiology in a major hospital, he was dismissed 11/2 years later. He died just 55 years old from aplastique anemia caused by radiation or rather lack of radiation protection. His name is engraved in a memorial for victims of radiology together with famous names as Marie Curie, her daughter Irene, and Albers-Schönberg. He wrote several books, ranging from popular medical books to books about military and defence subjects, 2 plays and an autobiography.