José Gregorio Hernández practised at a period when medicine itself was being rebuilt on new foundations.
The record lists José Gregorio Hernández as Venezuelan physician and Franciscan tertiary, saint in the Catholic Church.
José Gregorio Hernández was born at Isnotú, Trujillo, Venezuela in 1864. His recorded nationality is Venezuela. He trained at Central University of Venezuela.
Anaesthesia, antisepsis and germ theory arrived within fifty years and made modern surgery possible for the first time.
His posts were held at Central University of Venezuela.
Clinical knowledge is accumulated slowly and revised often, usually at some cost.
That the work was done from Venezuela matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
José Gregorio Hernández died in 1919, aged 55. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Held posts at Central University of Venezuela
