Charles Everett Koop October 14, β February 25, [ 1 ] [ 2 ] was an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator who served as the 13th surgeon general of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from to Koop was known for his work on tobacco use , AIDS , and abortion , and for his support of the rights of children with disabilities.
He also established the pediatric surgery fellowship training program at CHOP. During his tenure there he graduated 35 residents and 14 foreign fellows, many of whom went on to become professors of pediatric surgery, directors of divisions of pediatric surgery, and surgeons-in-chief of children's hospitals.
Koop became a professor of pediatric surgery in and professor of pediatrics in at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. While a surgeon in Philadelphia, Koop performed groundbreaking surgical procedures on conjoined twins , invented techniques which today are commonly used for infant surgery, and saved the lives of countless children who otherwise might have been allowed to die.
He invented anesthetic and surgical techniques for small bodies and metabolisms and participated in the separation of several sets of conjoined twins whose condition other physicians at the time considered hopeless.
He first gained international recognition in by the separation of two female pygopagus infants conjoined at the pelvis [ 12 ] and then, again, in by the separation of two ischiopagus twins conjoined at the spine sharing a liver, colon, and parts of the intestines with their entire trunks merged. Each day of those early years in pediatric surgery I felt I was on the cutting edge. Some of the surgical problems that landed on the operating table at Children's had not even been named.
