January 13 – On This Day in Medical History

Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with January 13.

Events

1947 – In Havana, Manuel Martínez Curbelo (1906-1962) reported the first lumbar epidural catheter technique for continuous segmental (“peridural”) anaesthesia. He identified the epidural space by loss of resistance, threaded a ureteral catheter through a Tuohy needle, and maintained anaesthesia for laparotomy with incremental procaine dosing.

2020 – First COVID-19 Case Outside China. The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), Thailand reported the first imported case of lab-confirmed novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The case is a 61-year-old Chinese woman living in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.

2026 – The American Cancer Society (ACS) released its “Cancer Statistics, 2026” report, highlighting a major milestone: the 5-year relative survival rate for all cancers combined has surpassed 70% in the United States, rising from 50% in the 1970s

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Births

1849 – Vasily Parmenovich Obraztsov (1849-1920), Russian physician; described Obraztsova sign (Симптом Образцова, Cope psoas test)

1858 – Oskar Minkowski (1858–1931), German physiologist who discovered that removing the pancreas from a dog caused diabetes, which eventually led to the discovery of insulin

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Deaths

1875 – Robert Adams (1791-1875), Irish surgeon; described Stokes-Adams syndrome (1827)

1981 – Ella Hutzler Oppenheimer (1897-1981), American pathologist; described Landing-Oppenheimer syndrome (1957, 1959)

1984 – Sylvester McGinn (1904-1984), American cardiologist; described the McGinn-White pattern (1935) – S_I Q_III T_III  pattern on ECG representing right heart strain in an acute pulmonary embolism

1906 – Ernst Trier Mørch (1908-1996) was a Danish-American anesthesiologist. Inventor of teh Mueller-Mørch ventilator (1954), and Mørch Laryngoscope (1951)

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Further reading

• Novel Coronavirus – Thailand (ex-China). WHO
• Primo N. Lara, Dawn L. Hershman, Cancer statistics, 2026: Charting a course for a national cancer research agenda. Cancer Journal for Clinicians 2026; 76