Josep Trueta

Who was Josep Trueta?

Josep Trueta i Raspall was a Catalan medical doctor.

As a Catalan nationalist, he was forced into exile to England after the Spanish Civil War, during which he had been the chief of trauma services for the city of Barcelona. During World War II, he helped to organize medical emergency services there. His use of a new plaster cast method for the treatment of open wounds and fractures helped save a great number of lives during several wars.

Trueta formed part of a group of Catalans exiled in the United Kingdom who denounced the situation of Catalonia under Franco's regime. He wrote The Spirit of Catalonia, a book aimed at explaining Catalan history to English-speaking society.

He joined the team run by Florey and Chain that developed penicillin in Oxford, and held the first live animal to be injected with the revolutionary antibiotic.

He was Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of Oxford and directed the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre. He retired in 1966, and returned to Catalonia.

The main hospital of Girona was named in his honour, as are streets in many towns across Catalonia..