Kurt Eckel (neurologist)

Kurt Eckel (born November 27, 1918 in Vienna ; † May 12, 1993 in Bad Ischl ) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist.

Life

Eckel was the only child of the railway official Julius Eckel and his wife Hilde. He attended elementary school and the XIV federal high school, passed his matriculation examination in 1936 and then studied medicine at the University of Vienna . His second home was Bad Ischl from 1945, where he lived with his wife Josefine ("Fini", born January 1, 1920, † February 16, 2014) and his two children. Here he died at the age of 75 on May 12, 1993.

Professional and academic career

During his studies Eckel worked as a demonstrator at the university institutes for medicinal chemistry, physiology and pathological anatomy. In 1940 he began a scientific training as a volunteer assistant at the Physiological Institute of the University of Vienna. He received his doctorate on July 5, 1941 . He then worked as a scientific assistant and from 1943 as a senior assistant at the Physiological Institute and was appointed civil servant on revocation.

He did military service in the Air Force and was most recently staff doctor in the reserve from August 1941 to June 1945 with several interruptions for scientific work at the Physiological Institute. In 1942 he was the head of an altitude test center at the Air Force Hospital in Vienna. During this time he completed his habilitation at the University of Vienna and received the Venia legendi for physiology as a university lecturer on January 31, 1945 .

At the end of the war, Eckel came to Bad Ischl as a result of the hospital relocation and was medically active in what was then the Bauer private hospital (Salzkammergut private hospital). This "air force hospital for brain, spinal cord and nerve injuries" under general doctor Wilhelm Tönnis comprised 1,800 beds. After the end of the war, the operation was continued under American control as "Hospital 905B" and in 1946 it was reduced to approx. 350 beds. In April 1947 the "Federal Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery" was created in Bad Ischl.

In the Bauer hospital he worked from 1946 to 1949 under the direction of Karl Dussik and his brother, the physicist Friedrich Dussik, in the first attempts at ultrasound diagnostics (hyperphonography), at that time attempts to examine the brain with them. He completed his specialist training in neurology and psychiatry and was a visiting doctor at the Psychiatric-Neurological University Clinic in Innsbruck. From April 1, 1949 Eckel was senior physician for neurology and psychiatry at the then private hospital "Salzkammergut" (Bauer house) in Bad Ischl. After Dussik accepted an invitation to the USA, Eckel was appointed head doctor from September 15, 1951, he stayed until December 1952. On December 8, 1952, he became a consultant and from 1956 head of the neurological ward of the "State Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery" , known as "The Kaiserkrone", in Bad Ischl until this institution was closed on January 31, 1969.

Since then Eckel Primarius has worked calmly and medically as a consultant for neurology and psychiatry at the Bad Ischl State Hospital until retirement. From the winter semester 1968/69 Eckel had lectureships at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Salzburg on psychology for psychologists. On May 8, 1969, he became an honorary professor and, after a recent habilitation at the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna, he was appointed university lecturer for the entire subject of physiology on June 27, 1973.

On September 27, 1974 he was appointed associate professor with simultaneous appointment as head of the department of psychological physiology, which he held until 1981. At the end of the 1970s he was appointed full university professor. He officially ended his teaching activity in Salzburg in the winter semester 1992/93.

Until 1985 he ran a cash practice in Bad Ischl, where he worked as a neurologist and psychiatrist. Here he not only looked after patients from the inner Salzkammergut , but patients also came from far away. He also paid special attention to balneology here in the health resort . A large part of his scientific work dealt with ultrasound examinations and diagnostics, but also the effectiveness of ultrasound treatments , CSF pressure, Parkinson's disease , multiple sclerosis , epilepsy and sensory physiological aspects.

More than seventy (as of 1982) scientific papers and domestic and foreign patents (e.g. the glare-free surgical lamp 1959, pressure measuring device 1952, blood pressure measuring device 1977) go back to him.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Doctoral degree from the University of Vienna Medical Faculty, dated July 5, 1941.
2. ^ Herbert Fuhs: Doctor Medicinae Habilitatus . Ed .: Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna. Vienna January 31, 1945.
3. ^ Hubert J. Urban: Medical ultrasound research in Bad Ischl . Ed .: Austria. Year 1948, issue 4, 1948, p. 30th f .
4. ↑ K. Eckel: The discovery of the first imaging method in ultrasound diagnostics by K.Th. Dussik 50 years ago . In: Ultrasound in clinics and practices . tape 7 . Springer Verlag, Berlin 1992, p. 299-305 .
5. ^ Dean of the University of Salzburg (ed.): Notification of the award of the title honorary professor . Salzburg May 19, 1969.
6. ^ University of Salzburg (Ed.): Yearbook of the University of Salzburg 1973/74 - 1974/75 . University printing works, Salzburg, p. 20 .