Margono Soekarjo

Margono Soekarjo (29 March 18978 October 1970) was an Indonesian surgeon and a professor of surgery at the University of Indonesia. He was the dean of the university's medicine faculty from 1960 to 1964. He was known for his role in pioneering cardiac surgery in Indonesia.

Early life Soekarjo was born on 29 March 1897 in Sokaraja, Banyumas, as Mas Soekarjo. His father, Wiroatmodjo, was a bank employee in Purwokerto. He had two brothers and three sisters.

As the child of a Javanese aristocrat, Soekarjo had access to European education. He was educated at the Dutch-speaking Europeesche Lagere School from 1904 to 1910. and graduated from the school as an indische arts (native Indonesian physician) on 8 May 1920.

Career In June 1920, Soekarjo, along with Wilhelmus Zakaria Johannes and Tengku Mansur was assigned to the Nederlandsch-Indische Artsen School in Surabaya as an assistant surgeon. After serving for seven years in Surabaya, Soekarjo was reassigned to the Centrale Burgerlijke Ziekeninrichting te Batavia (now the Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital) for a few months. He departed to Amsterdam alongside his wife in August that year. He studied surgery at the University of Amsterdam. After two years, he was elevated to a full arts (physician) making him equivalent to his Dutch counterparts. From 1929 to 1930, Soekarjo visited surgical facilities in Paris, Düsseldorf, Halle, Prague, and Vienna. Soekarjo respected Lesk so much that he displayed Lesk’s portrait prominently in his workroom. where he became the deputy chief of the hospital's surgery section. In October that year, Soekarjo became a substitute professor at the Nederlandsch-Indische Artsen School, replacing Tj. Wieberdink who was in sick leave. About four months later, on 2 December, Soekarjo received a permanent commission as a surgeon at the Semarang Central Hospital. His medical rank was promoted to a gouvernements-arts (government physician). Soekarjo then became chief of the hospital's surgery section in 1933, As the hospital's director, Soekarjo protected physicians and hospital employees from Japanese soldiers. After the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, the Semarang Central Hospital was renamed by the Indonesian authorities to the Central People's Hospital (Purusara, Pusat Rumah Sakit Rakyat), and Soekarjo retained his leadership of the hospital.

After the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, Indonesian academicians established the Indonesian Higher Education Center, which was the counterpart to the Dutch-established Universiteit van Indonesië. Soekarjo was appointed as a professor of surgery at the Indonesian Higher Education Center on 25 January 1947. Aside from giving lectures at the university, he also taught at medical schools in West Germany, Bulgaria, and Hungary.

He became the dean of the University of Indonesia's medicine faculty from 1960 until his retirement in 1964. after previously adopting Soekarjo as his family name in December 1931. He was married to Brand Soekarjo, a dermatologist from Austria, in 1926. His body was interred at the Menteng Pulo Cemetery the next day. The central hospital in Banyumas was named after him in 1990.