Johan Berger Mathiesen
American physician
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johan Berger Mathiesen (13 November 1872[1][2] – 17 January 1923)[3][4] was a Norwegian-born doctor and surgeon who worked for most of his adult life in Wisconsin, United States.
Johan Berger Mathiesen | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 13, 1872 |
| Died | January 17, 1923 (aged 50) Eau Claire, Wisconsin, U.S. |
Mathiesen was born in Drammen, Norway, as the son of Colonel Thomas Mathiesen (1832–1922) and Karen Marie Berger (1849–1914).[5] After finishing his degree in medicine at the university of Kristiania in 1898, he immigrated to America in spring 1900.[6] He settled down in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and lived there for the remainder of his life except for a period in 1902–1905.[7]
Once in Eau Claire, he teamed up with Norwegian-born doctor and surgeon Hans Christian Midelfart (1865–1937). Mathiesen and Midelfart soon came to be regarded as two of the "leading surgeons" of the American Northwest;[8] they appear to have been among the first doctors in the USA who emphasized the importance of specialization among doctors.[9] From 1908 they worked as surgeons at the then newly-founded Luther Hospital in Eau Claire.[10]
Mathiesen died of pneumonia in January 1923 at the age of 50. His death resulted in large headlines in several Wisconsin newspapers at the time.[11]
Personal life
Mathiesen was married to Norwegian-born Augusta Y. Selmer (1878–1923) in 1903. The couple had four children: Anna Augusta (1904, later wife of engineer Odd Dahl), Erling Selmer (1906), Birgit (1908, mother of sociologist Thomas Mathiesen) and John Thomas (1916).[12] Since both Johan Berger and his wife died within months of each other in 1923, the children became orphans at an early age.