Jean Verbrugge

The son of Cyril Verbrugge, who competed as a fencer at the 1900 and 1906 Olympics, Jean Verbrugge fenced for Belgium at the 1920 and 1928 Olympics, but would become far better known for his contributions to orthopaedic science. Verbrugge earned his medical degree in 1921 from the University of Bruxelles. He was then awarded a scholarship from the Fellows of the Committee for Relief in Belgium and studied for two years at the Mayo Clinic, returning to Belgium in 1924. In 1925 he started his career at the Stuyvenberg Hospital in Antwerpen, eventually succeeding Albin Lambotte as head of surgery.

Jean Verbrugge later became professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Ghent. He had over 175 scientific publications, including a textbook of orthopaedics used by his students. Verbrugge was President of the Belgian Orthopaedic Association three separate times. In 1962 he was elected President of the Société Belge de Chirurgie. He is remembered well into the 21st century by orthopaedists world-wide as the inventor of the Verbrugge clamp, a bone-holding clamp used almost universally in surgical work on fractures.