Johannes Fatio

Johannes Fatio (14 June 1649 – 28 September 1691) was a Swiss surgeon who worked in Basel. He performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins in 1689. He was publicly executed two years later for his role in the 1691 Basel revolution.

Biography Johannes Fatio was born on 14 June 1649 in Basel to Johann Anton Fatio, a merchant, and Christina Henricpetri. His father was of Italian Protestant descent and his mother came from a well known Basel family. Fatio enrolled in medicine at the University of Basel in 1662, aged 13, but never studied there. He completed an apprenticeship as a barber surgeon and was admitted to a barber surgeon's guild in 1672. His writings (published posthumously) also provides advice on resuscitating newborn babies with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The separation of the twins, who were joined at the xiphoid process, was performed by ligature in three stages over nine days. After the separation, Fatio and Braun each cared for one twin, and each stump was said to have healed within ten days.

The first case report was published by physician Emanuel König in 1689. Multiple contemporaneous reports, including Zwinger's 1690 recount, credit Fatio as the surgeon who performed the separation. Fatio's own account was only published in 1752, 61 years after his death, as part of an obstetric handbook aimed at midwives titled Der Arzney Doctor, Helvetisch-Vernünftiche Wehe-Mutter. It was the only manuscript of Fatio's that was not burned by authorities at the time of his arrest and subsequent execution.