{{Short description|Danish-born surgeon, pathologist, and medical instructor}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Christian Fenger | image = Christian Fenger by J. Petersen & Co.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date |1840|11|3}} | birth_place = Copenhagen, Denmark | death_date = {{Death date and age|1902|3|7|1840|11|3}} | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, United States | resting_place = Graceland Cemetery | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = | workplaces = | alma_mater = Copenhagen Polytechnic Institute<br />University of Copenhagen | doctoral_advisors = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = Surgery | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = Signature of Christian Fenger (1840–1902).png | signature_alt = | footnotes = | other_names = }}
'''Christian Fenger''' (November 3, 1840 – March 7, 1902) was a Danish-born surgeon, pathologist, and medical instructor. In the later half of his life, he worked at several medical institutions in Chicago, and became one of the most highly regarded surgeons in the United States.<ref name=trib>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-dr-fenger-dead-ill-but/145439515/ |title=Dr. Fenger Dead; Ill But a Week |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |page=2 |date=March 8, 1902 |access-date=2024-04-15 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name=jama>"Christian Fenger". ''JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association''. Volume 38. March 15, 1902. 719.</ref>
== Early life and education == Fenger was born at Ringkøbing, the son of farmer Hans Frederik Fenger (1816-1901) and Frederikke Mathilde Fjelstrup (Fjeldstrup) (1816-94).<ref name="DBL">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/Christian_Fenger|title=Christian Fenger|language=da|encyclopedia=Dansk Biografisk Leksikon|access-date=16 June 2022}}</ref> His brother was minister at Holmen Church and royal confessioner Hans Mathias Fenger.<ref name="DBL - H, N. Fenger">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/H.M._Fenger|title=H. H. Fenger|language=da|encyclopedia=Dansk Biografisk Leksikon|access-date=16 June 2022}}</ref> Their father owned Augustenborg Manor from 1861 to 1870.<ref name=DH>{{cite web|url=https://www.danskeherregaarde.dk/nutid/augustenborg-hovedgaard|title=Augustenborg|language=Danish|website=danskeherregaarde.dk|accessdate=18 September 2019}}</ref><ref name="DBL - H, N. Fenger"/> His paternal grandparents were businessman Peter Fenger and Else Fenger. Fenger studied engineering at the Copenhagen Polytechnic Institute for around a year before his father convinced him to pursue a medical degree<ref name="anb">William K. Beatty. "Fenger, Christian". ''American National Biography Online''. February 2000. Retrieved on December 12, 2009.</ref> at the University of Copenhagen. He gained experience as a surgeon during the Danish-Prussian War and Franco-Prussian War<ref name="trib" /> and received his MD in 1874.<ref name=trib/>
== Career == From 1875 to 1877, Fenger worked in Egypt, where he studied trachoma and schistosomiasis. However, he did not cope well with the Egyptian climate, and at the advice of a group of Americans he met in Cairo, he set off for the United States. He eventually settled in Chicago, which had a prominent Scandinavian community.<ref name="anb" />
Fenger was invited to perform some autopsies at Cook County Hospital, and soon joined that hospital's surgical staff with a distinguished record conducting experimental skin grafts.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ok9AQAAIAAJ|title=Scientific American, "A Remarkable Surgical Operation"|date=1880-08-07|publisher=Munn & Company|pages=89, 122|language=en}}</ref> He worked there until 1893, while also holding various teaching positions at the Chicago Medical College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago. From 1893 to 1899, Fenger worked as chair of surgery at the Chicago Medical College;<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W9BXAAAAMAAJ&dq=feuger&pg=PA300|title=Southern California Practitioner, Vol. 2|date=1887|publisher=Stoll & Thayer|pages=300|language=en}}</ref> he then became a professor of surgery at Rush Medical College. Fenger's lectures were very popular, and over the years, he trained several prominent physicians, including William James Mayo, Charles Horace Mayo, Nicholas Senn, James B. Herrick, Ludvig Hektoen, and Howard Taylor Ricketts.<ref name="anb" />
thumb|right|200px|Fenger's grave at Graceland Cemetery
In Chicago, Fenger helped demonstrate the bacterial origins of endocarditis and developed techniques for cleft palate repair, vaginal hysterectomy, and the relief of ureteral strictures. He also became one of the first surgeons to remove an intramedullary tumor from the spinal cord. He performed thousands of autopsies, and used his knowledge of about twelve languages to keep abreast of medical literature.<ref name=anb/> A writer in the ''Journal of the American Medical Association'' declared, "There is nothing that he has written, at least nothing with which we are familiar, that does not contain something of value, valuable at least for the time at which it was produced."<ref name=jama/>
== Awards and honors == In 1901, Fenger was named to the Order of the Dannebrog by the king of Denmark. He died of pneumonia at his home in Chicago on March 7, 1902.<ref name=trib/><ref name=anb/> He was buried at Graceland Cemetery. Christian Fenger Academy High School in Chicago is named in his honor.<ref name=suntimes>David Southwell. "Championship Spirit Alive, Well". ''Chicago Sun-Times''. September 9, 1992. 83.</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Christian Fenger}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenger, Christian}} Category:1840 births Category:1902 deaths Category:Danish surgeons Category:Danish pathologists Category:Order of the Dannebrog Category:Rush Medical College faculty Category:Northwestern University faculty Category:University of Copenhagen alumni Category:Danish emigrants to the United States Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Illinois Category:Burials at Graceland Cemetery (Chicago) Christian