Dr Mieczyslaw Jan de Sas Kropiwnicki (1912-1971): The first Polish veterinarian to perform a caesarean section on a brood mare

The paper presents the life story of Dr Mieczysław Jan de Sas Kropiwnicki, Polish solder, member of the “Cichociemni” paratrooper group during World War II and a veterinarian, who practiced in RSA and who became famous after he had successfully performed a pioneering operation of a cesarean section on a mare in 1957. The tangled history of his life shows this great patriot entangled in the turbulent fates of the World War II and as a representative of our veterinarian profession, determined enough, to study veterinary medicine in Scotland (Edinburgh) once again, after his diploma from the Veterinary Medicine Academy in Lwów was lost, and then to nostrificate it to join the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to finally start his practice in RSA. A lot of details of Dr Kropiwnicki’s life were elaborated on by one of the authors – his grandson, who was born and raised in Africa and finally settled in Poland – the country of his grandfather’s origin, which was the place he had not been able to return to, but had been longing for all his life.