Henry Leon Feffer (January 15, 1918May 9, 2011, Henry Feffer, spine surgeon who treated D.C. notables and beloved gorilla, dies at 93, May 11, 2011.) of Bethesda, Maryland, was an American neurosurgeon. In the mid-1950s, he was one of the first medical doctors to systematically test whether low-back pain could be relieved with epidural injections of hydrocortisone. Today, physicians routinely give such injections before resorting to more invasive surgery. He was a Washington, D.C. spinal surgeon for more than four decades whose patients included Saddam Hussein.
Early life and childhood Feffer was born on January 15, 1918, in New York City.
Education Feffer graduated from Indiana University, and from the Indiana University School of Medicine. His orthopedic surgery internship was in The Gallinger Municipal Hospital in Washington, D.C. which later became, the now defunct, District of Columbia General Hospital., District of Columbia General Hospital, last updated September 8, 2006
Career Feffer was an emeritus professor at George Washington University Medical School.
Death Feffer died on May 9, 2011, of congestive heart failure at the age of 93.
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