[DEYCKE PASHA AND THE LÜBECK DISASTER]

Dr. Georg Deycke, known as Deycke Pasha in Turkey, came to Istanbul in 1898 with Prof. Robert Rieder in order to reorganize the Imperial Medical School. Prof Rieder es- tablished a new training hospital named as The Giilhane Clinics and Dr. Deycke worked there until 1904 as the vice director. After Rieder left Turkey, he became the director to the hospital and served until the end of his contract in 1907. So after that time we know very less of his life and works. As well as its almost unknown that he was responsible for the BCG inoculation misfortune in Lübeck in 1930. Oral tuberculosis vaccine (BCG) was developed by Calmette and Gu6rin in 1921 after thirteen-year old preliminary work. Until 1928, before the BCG vaccination was begun in Germany, 150,000 children had been inoculated abroad. In 1929, Dr. Altstaedt, the director of the public health authorities in Lübeck, and Dr. George Deycke, the director of the gene- ral hospital in Lübeck, decided to introduce the inoculation at newborn children in Lübeck. At the beginning of August 1929, the original BCG culture, obtained from the Pasteur Insti- tute of Paris, was used to produce vaccine in the laboratory of the general hospital under the patronage of Dr. Deycke. The vaccination was begun in February 1930 and in the following two months 256 newborn children (about 84% of all newborn children) in Lübeck were inoculated orally against tuberculosis. In April 17th the first child died of tuberculosis and after it was followed by three more deaths Dr. Deycke stopped the inoculation. The large number of the inoculated children became ill and finally 75 of them died of tuberculosis. Dr. Deycke and those who assisted him were put on trial on October 12, 1931. A scientific committee was ordered to investigate what caused such a catastrophe. On February 6th 1932, after 76 days of inquiries and trials, Dr. Deycke was found guilty of negligent killing and negligent bodily injury and sentenced two years in prison. In this paper, both the life and the works of Deycke Pasha after the year 1907, and the details of Lübeck Disaster and the lessons learned from it will be discussed in detail.