Magdalena Bendzisławska

Magdalena Bendzisławska ( late 17th century) was a Polish doctor and surgeon for miners of the Wieliczka Salt Mine and their families. She is considered the first official female surgeon in Polish history.

Life and work Magdalena was the wife of Walenty Bendzisławski, a Barber Surgeon working at the salt mine in Wieliczka near Kraków in southern Poland. The couple lived next to the mine where workers routinely suffered from many kinds of injuries, contusions and fractures and came to the barber for medical attention. Magdalena began as her husband's assistant as he tended to patients as a doctor and surgeon. The privilege admitted that she was a surgeon perfect in her craft and had the right, knowledge and skills to take over her husband's duties as a saltworks doctor.

In 1698, she took advantage of the presence of the Visiting Commission in the mine and applied for confirmation of the right to practice her profession. She presented two privileges: one granted to her husband in 1694 and one granted to her in 1697. The commission granted her the rights and privileges of a member of the barbers' guild. She had to complete several steps: take an oath; present a set of tools (a box with razors, scissors, combs, tooth forceps, dental tweezers, a jar of leeches and others) and demonstrate the ability to make ointments and dressings; and know anatomy and be able to use medicines for internal injuries. In her professional practice, she performed dental, surgical and ophthalmological procedures, such as removing cataracts and foreign bodies from the eye. She also immobilized fractures, removed teeth, dressed wounds and performed bloodletting. On 25 May 2012, a plaque commemorating Bendzisławska was unveiled in the salt mine in Wieliczka. One of the heroines is Bendzisławska. The comic book was published by the Kosmos dla Girls Foundation. Before the book version was released, the comic book was published in the magazine Kosmos dla Dzieciek. Bendzisławska also appears in Anna Dziewitt-Meller's publication Lady, Girls, Girls. History in a Skirt (2020). In 2021, the Superhero Academy card game about Polish scientists, prepared by Tomasz Rożek as part of the Superhero Academy project, was released with Bendzisławska as one of its heroines.