Victor Gomoiu (April 18, 1882 – February 6, 1960) was a Romanian surgeon, anatomist, folklorist and medical historian, who served as Minister of Health and Social Protection in 1940. Noted before 1910 for his work in descriptive surgery and pathology, focusing on the treatment of tuberculosis, genital diseases and tumors, he soon became one of the main contributors to medical historiography and bibliography. He founded several hospitals and edited medical journals, setting up a collection of medical instruments which became the basis of a national museum in Craiova. He became a professor at the University of Bucharest, an expert for the League of Nations, and, after distinguished service in World War I, a recipient of the Legion of Honor; additionally, he served for 22 years as president of the International Society for the History of Medicine, of which his wife Viorica was also an active member.
A protégé of Queen Helen and administrator of her Brâncovenesc Hospital, Gomoiu fell out with King Carol II, and was arrested in 1934 for protesting against his rule. He returned to serve in two consecutive far-right governments, but, during World War II, emerged as a protector of the Romanian Jews, denouncing the policy of deportations to Transnistria. Despite this stance and his international profile, Gomoiu was arrested by the postwar communist regime, and spent time in confinement at Sighet and Aiud prisons. He had been posthumously rehabilitated by the 1980s, but his work was only fully recovered after the Romanian Revolution of 1989.
Biography
Early life and work Born in Vânju Mare, Mehedinți County, he was the first child of Romanian Orthodox priest Gheorghe and his wife Ana. Dr. Victor Gomoiu (1882–1960), at the Dr. Victor Gomoiu Theoretical High School site He attended primary school in his native village, followed by Traian High School in Turnu Severin from 1893 to 1900. Between 1900 and 1905, he studied at the medical faculty of the University of Bucharest. Meanwhile, he rose steadily through the hospital ranks, from extern at Colțea Hospital in 1903 to intern there in 1905 to apprentice doctor at Bucharest's central military hospital in 1910. "Gomoiu, Victor", at the Alexandru and Aristia Aman County Library Gomoiu was a disciple of anatomist Thoma Ionescu. Alongside Dimitrie Gerota, Ernest Juvara, and Victor Papilian, he continued Ionescu's work in descriptive anatomy as well as, in some instances, physical anthropology.Riga & Călin, pp. 142, 374–380
In 1906, Gomoiu published in Bucharest the first volume of his Istoricul Societăței Studenților în Medicină ("History of the Medical Students' Society"), with a plate by Ary Murnu; also that year, his study on eye disease among the rural population saw print at Târgu Jiu.Teodorescu et al., pp. 502, 505–504 Affiliated with the left-wing agrarian current, or Poporanism, he established in that city the literary magazine Șezătórea Săteanului ("Villager's Sitting"), joining an editorial office which also included George Coșbuc and G. Dumitrescu Bumbești-Jiu. Cornel Șomâcu, "Victor Gomoiu, un oltean cu merite deosebite în medicină", in Vertical Online, October 28, 2009 It was here that he published some of his first contributions in ethnomedicine.Otilia Gherghe, "Problema agrară reflectată în publicații gorjene editate la sfârșitul secolului al XIX-lea și începutul secolului al XX-lea", in Litua. Studii și Cercetări, Vol. XVII, 2015, p. 243 He took his first trip outside the country in 1908, visiting states from Austria-Hungary to Great Britain.Sârbu, p. 19
Gomoiu published steadily, and also lectured at the Medical Students' Society and the Surgical Society. Topics included meningoencephalitis, cerebral atrophy, facial nerve paralysis, fibrous tissue neoplasm, lipoma, the anatomy of the endothelium, corneal transplantation, skin grafting, dental implants, hysterectomy, various types of cysts and "rare tumors", and talus bone expulsion. These works were taken up in Eraclie Sterian's magazine, Spitalul, of which Gomoiu was co-editor,Riga & Călin, p. 378 or published as brochures.Teodorescu et al., pp. 502–505 His doctoral thesis, on facial anaplasia, was awarded a magna cum laude in 1909,Sârbu, p. 19; Tricot, p. 115 and published the same year. It was followed in 1910 by Gomoiu's introduction to inguinal hernia surgery, his reviews of surgery as applied to genital tuberculosis, vaginal hydrocele, urethrocele, and varicocele, and a work on the physiological role of cholesterol.Teodorescu et al., pp. 501–504 A winner of the Manoah Hillel scholarship, that year and the next also saw his first contributions as a medical bibliographer and librarian, with catalogues of entries for the University of Bucharest's graduation papers in medicine.Sârbu, p. 19; Teodorescu et al., p. 502 For his service in the Romanian Army, Gomoiu was concentrated in Medgidia.
Gomoiu soon lost his father to pancreatic cancer and found it hard to provide for himself, accepting jobs for which he was overqualified. In March 1911, recommended by Francisc Rainer, he began working as a surgical docent and became director of the Techirghiol tuberculosis sanatorium. He modernized the institution, systematizing records, constructing a laboratory, planting a grove of cluster pines, and furnishing a small facility for the study of regional climatology and radioactivity. He also began experimenting with thalassotherapy, light therapy, and the use of medicinal clay.Sârbu, pp. 19–20 This inaugurated a ten-year practice at various hospitals, during which Gomoiu patented various new surgical techniques.Tricot, p. 115 In November, after a disagreement with medical inspector Gheorghe Proca, who suggested that the sanatorium was unhygienic, Gomoiu handed in his resignation.Sârbu, p. 20
In 1913, a second-class surgeon at Filantropia Hospital, Gomoiu published a piece on "the radical treatment of vaginal hydrocele" in the French journal Lyon Chirurgical, and his opening lesson on "small surgery" (Mica chirurgie).Teodorescu et al., p. 503 That year, he also performed his military obligation by accompanying the ambulatory health service sent to the Ottoman Empire during the Second Balkan War and performing surgery within the unit. In parallel, he studied craniometry, publishing a study of 24 craniums in Revista Științelor Medicale, then as a booklet, and following up in 1915 with Cercetări asupra perimetrului cranian ("Researching the Cranial Perimeter"). The same years saw his many conferences at the Surgical Society printed in several editions, alongside separate studies of skin cancer, the sympathetic nervous system in the abdomen, gas gangrene of the thorax, and gastrostomy techniques.Teodorescu et al., pp. 502–503, 505 In 1916, he and Ionescu together discovered the link between stellate ganglion removal and sympathectomy.O. Buda, "Thoma Ionescu (1860–1926): 150 de ani de la naștere", in Chirurgia, Issue 3, 2010, p. 302
Rise to prominence For his work as a military physician during the Romanian Campaign of World War I, Gomoiu was decorated with the Order of the Crown (1917), the Order of the Star of Romania (1918), and the Queen Marie Cross (1919). He subsequently served terms as head of the Union of Reserve Officers, and, in 1920–1921, was curator (or efor) of Bucharest's civilian hospitals. The author of Hommage a la France et aux médecins français ("A Homage to France and French Physicians", 1918), Gomoiu was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1922. Cicerone Ionițoiu, "Victimele terorii comuniste. Arestați, torturați, întemnițați, uciși. Dicționar G" Between 1919 and 1942, he was a surgeon at the Oradea war hospital and at two hospitals in Bucharest, also working at Brâncovenesc Hospital. Meanwhile, he held various leadership roles in medical societies and administrative bodies, and, in 1921, became a professor at Bucharest University.
His work now included tracts in social medicine, the history of medicine and medical education. In 1923, he published the volume Din istoria medicinei și învățământului medical în România ("Briefs on the History of Medicine and Medical History in Romania"), followed in 1927 by Preoțimea în slujba operelor de ocrotire și medicină socială ("Priesthood in Service of Medical Care and Social Medicine").Gheorghe Banu, Tratat de medicină socială. Volumul 1. Medicina socială ca știință. Eugenia. Demografia, p. 43. Bucharest: Casa Școalelor, 1944. See also Bănescu, pp. 2–3; Riga & Călin, p. 525; Tricot, pp. 116, 120 The former essay, reissued in 1940 as Biserica și medicina ("Church and Medical Science"), showed Gomoiu as a deist, philosophically inspired by Isaac Newton and Giovanni Battista Morgagni.Bănescu, p. 2 The work, which suggested that priests could work as "doctors of the soul", earned him a special prize from the Ministry of Health, led at the time by the priest Ioan Lupaș.Bănescu, pp. 2–3
Gomoiu also issued Istoricul presei medicale din România ("A History of Romania's Medical Press", 1925), and the second volume of Istoricul Societăței Studenților (1926).Riga & Călin, p. 525 His first contacts with the International Society for the History of Medicine (ISHM) came in 1927 and 1928, when he sent in presentations on the first physicians active in the Danubian Principalities and the roots of Romanian ethnomedicine.Tricot, pp. 116, 117, 120 In late 1927, on a visit to northern Europe, Gomoiu was impressed by Danish education. His article covering Danish libraries, and in particular the one Nikolaj Tower, saw print in Cuvântul daily and was also taken up in Școala Noastră.Dr. V. Gomoiu, "Mijloace de civilizație — la alții", in Școala Noastră, Nr. 19–20/1927, pp. 535–537
Gomoiu also became a trusted supporter of King Ferdinand I, managing the charity set up by his daughter, Princess Ileana.Tricot, pp. 115–116 He was one of the specialists who assisted Ferdinand during his losing battle with colorectal cancer.Nicolae Iorga, Memorii. Vol. V: Agonia regală și regența, p. 161. Bucharest: Editura Naționala S. Ciornei, 1939 In 1927, under Ileana's patronage,Tricot, p. 116 he set up the Sfânta Elena Hospital, in the working-class suburb of Bariera Vergului, Bucharest. He personally oversaw the pledge drive, collecting private donations and public money from the National Bank, the Ministry of Health and Căile Ferate Române, offering free medical services to the donors. Gomoiu also designed much of the building, modifying sketches by the architect Gheorghe Șimotta. In the end, the hospital developed into a regional model, being cited as such in League of Nations reports.
Together with his friend Mihai Cănciulescu, Gomoiu edited Acta Medica Romana magazine from 1928 to 1948. There, the two led a sustained campaign for the establishment of a university at Craiova, and also contributed to the establishment of regional hospitals in Vânju Mare, Turnu Severin, and Mangalia. Considered a founder of medical history and museography in Romania, Gomoiu collected old publications, diplomas, decrees, instruments and medical or pharmaceutical apparatus. He founded the ISHN-affiliated Romanian Medical History Society, which held monthly meetings from 1929 to 1948 and was also placed under Princess Ileana's patronage. With his wife Viorica, herself a physician, Gomoiu organized and hosted the ISHM's September 1932 congress in Bucharest."La bonne besogne du Congrés de Bucarest", in Revue d'Histoire de la Pharmacie, Vol. 20, Issue 80, 1932, pp. 199–200; Constantin Bacaloglu, "Al IX-lea congres internațional al Istoriei Medicinei", in Cele Trei Crișuri, Issues 9–10/1932, pp. 93–94; Viorica Gomoiu, Eugène-Humbert Guitard, "Les divers courants qui ont animé la pharmacie roumaine", in Revue d'Histoire de la Pharmacie, Vol. 55, Issue 192, 1967, p. 371; Sârbu, p. 19; Tricot, pp. 116, 117