Leon Tochowicz

Leon Tochowicz (18 July 1897 – 29 July 1965) was a Polish internist and cardiologist.

For three terms he was a rector of the Medical Academy in Kraków (1957–65), and was referred to as the "founder of the Kraków school of cardiology". He was the author of nearly one hundred original research papers, mostly in the field of clinical cardiology, and was the initiator of the construction of the Institute of Pediatrics in Kraków-Prokocim, nowadays the University Children's Hospital in Kraków.

Fighting in the ranks of the Polish Army, he took part in the Polish–Soviet War (1918–1920) and in the 1939 Defensive War. In November 1939 he was imprisoned during the Sonderaktion Krakau action, and was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Biography He was born in the village of Igołomia as the son of Leon Tochowicz, a merchant, and Dorota née Nawrocka. In 1918 he volunteered for the Polish Army to take part in the war against the Bolsheviks. In 1920 he started studies in medicine at the Jagiellonian University. He obtained Ph.D. in medical sciences in 1926, after which he started working at the University as an assistant at the First Department of Internal Medicine. He received the habilitation in internal medicine on 12 July 1938.

He took part in the 1939 Defensive War as a medical officer. On 6 November 1939, as part of the Sonderaktion Krakau action, together with a group of other professors and lecturers of the Jagiellonian University, he was arrested by the Germans and deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After his release in 1940, he returned to Kraków and ran a private medical practice. and the President of the Kraków Branch of the Polish Cardiac Society. focusing, among others, on atherosclerosis and hypertension. He was the author of nearly one hundred original research papers in scientific journals. He is considered to be a pioneer of preventive cardiology in Poland.

He was a teacher of a number of cardiologists. Twenty-two doctors defended their doctoral thesis under his supervision, as well as ninety-six students of medical specialization. Among Tochowicz's students there were Władysław Król, Tadeusz Horzela and Leon Cholewa. Tochowicz's achievements in didactic activities made that he was by some referred to as the "founder of the Kraków school of cardiology".

He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta

Stanisław Tochowicz, a metallurgist, was his relative.

Works (selection)

English translation made by the author published that same year. German and French translations published in 1963. English translation published that same year.

Commemoration One of the streets in Kraków, in the district Swoszowice, was named after Leon Tochowicz.