Enrico Albanese
1834–1889 (age 55)
Biography
Enrico Albanese (11 March 1834, in Palermo – 5 May 1889, in Naples) was an Italian surgeon who lived during the Italian Risorgimento and distinguished himself in the field of Orthopaedics and Traumatology.
He earned a Medical degree in 1855 and the year after he went to Florence to finish his studies, under the guidance of M. Bufalini, G. Pellizzari and F. Zannetti.
After a few years he came back to his hometown, where he attended the school of Giovanni Gorgone, a well-known Anatomy teacher and full professor of Clinical surgery at the University of Palermo.
Enrico Albanese was also a close friend of Giuseppe Garibaldi, with whom he shared a lot of ideals and political aims; in fact he participated in the “Expedition of the Thousand” in 1860.
He also took part in the attempt to free Rome and during the “Aspromonte battle” on 29 August 1862 he was called upon to heal a severe wound on the foot of General Garibaldi.
In 1865 he became director of the Civil Hospital of Palermo and he also founded a paediatric ward and antiseptic operating room, one of the first to follow Joseph Lister’s theories.