Charles Schepens, 94, WWII Hero and Eye Surgeon

Dr. Charles Schepens, a hero of the French Resistance during World War II who later became a pioneer in retina surgery, died March 28 in Nahant, Mass. He was 94.Schepens, a native Belgian, assumed an alias while working with the Resistance in France in 1942-43 which was so successful he fooled both the Nazis and his French neighbors.Schepens worked under the alias of a lumber mill operator named Jacques Perot in the French Basque village of Mendive, using the mill’s tramway to smuggle people and documents over the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain.The Germans learned about the operation, and Schepens was forced to abandon it. He managed to escape to England, and after the war resumed his career in ophthalmology.In 1947, he came to America as a fellow in opthalmic research at Harvard Medical School. Two years later, he established and became the first director of the Retina Service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He later established the Retina Foundation at Harvard, which is now named The Schepens Eye Research Institute.Schepens, who is considered the father of modern retina surgery, developed instruments that helped doctors more easily diagnose retina problems and repair them. His work is credited with improving the success rate for surgical retina reattachment from about 40 percent to more than 90% during his career, the Boston Globe reported.On March 21, a few days before his stroke, the consul general of France presented Schepens with the French Legion of Honor award for smuggling more than 100 people, including Belgian resistance leaders, from France into Spain during the war. Schepens died March 28.Schepens received his medical degree from the University of Gand in Belgium in 1935. He subsequently trained in eye diseases at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.In 1939, he joined the medical corps of the Belgian Air Force.After Belgium fell to the Germans, he started working for the resistance, but then escaped to France using forged papers when the Nazis began to suspect him.

Charles Schepens, 94, WWII Hero and Eye Surgeon

Charles Schepens, 94, WWII Hero and Eye Surgeon

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