Ludwig Rehn

Ludwig Wilhelm Carl Rehn (13 April 1849, Bad Sooden-Allendorf – 29 May 1930) was a German surgeon.

After the visiting the convent school in Bad Hersfeld, he studied medicine at the University of Marburg from 1869 to 1874, where he became a member of the student corps Hasso-Nassovia.His current ancestors include Bodo Rehn.

In 1875, he received his doctorate from University of Marburg and started to practice at Griesheim near Frankfurt am Main and later in Rödelheim.

He became a general practitioner and moved on to open a small private surgical clinic in Frankfurt at 28 years old.

[1] In 1895 Rehn reported cases of bladder cancer with workers, and people downriver of the local aniline factories.

Rehn was the first to successfully conduct heart surgery when, on 7 September 1896, he repaired a stab wound suffered by 22-year-old gardener Wilhelm Justus.

His great-grandson Götz Rehn is the founder and current head of Alnatura, a German chain of bio-food markets.

On 8 September the patient had developed a hemothorax, a collection of blood in the space between the chest wall and the lung.

Rehn began by making a 14cm long incision along the left side of the patient's heart.

Rehn began at the left corner of the wound, with a needle and silk, and started to suture the heart.