He forever changed the lives of people with spinal injuries.
By improving their medical and social treatment – and by founding the Paralympic Games. The Poppa Guttmann Trust was established to celebrate the legacy of this genius of a man.
- 3monthsLife expectancy after a spinal cord injury in 1944. No treatment existed.
- 194814 ex-servicemen and 2 ex-servicewomen compete in archery on the grass outside the hospital – the first Games.
- 23nationsRome 1960: the first Games held abroad – the Paralympic Games were born.
- 200bedsThe size of the National Spinal Injuries Centre when he retired – it opened with 26.
Why was Ludwig Guttmann called “Poppa”?
In 1946, Dr Ludwig Guttmann was asked by a surgeon if he would see Beryle. When he visited he found the fourteen year old girl, who was very thin and only four stone, with numerous bed sores and legs fixed in extension. He felt very sorry for her and then aged 15 she came to Stoke Mandeville, the first non-military patient in Guttmann’s Spinal Injury Centre.
Beryle was there six and a half years, and one year for Christmas she gave Guttmann a lighter with “Poppa” engraved on it as she felt he had brought her up between 15-22 years old. This is how Guttmann got the name Poppa.
Read Beryle’s storyA celebration long overdue
Increased recognition of this remarkable pioneer is long overdue and the Poppa Guttmann Trust was established to provide just that – a celebration of the legacy of this genius of a man.
A life size bronze statue of “Poppa”, as he was endearingly known, was unveiled at a great reunion festivity of (former) patients and hospital staff on 24th June 2012, and finally installed outside the National Spinal Injuries Centre (NSIC) at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 2013.
A bronze bust from the same mould as the statue was presented to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), which was displayed at the 2012 Paralympic Games. The IPC also agreed to take the bust to all future winter and summer Paralympic Games.
Of the many forms of disability which can beset mankind, a severe injury or disease of the spinal cord undoubtedly constitutes one of the most devastating calamities of human life.
Due to his vital and groundbreaking work, the lives of spinal injured people around the world have been improved to an extent that nobody thought possible.
Explore
The Statue
How sculptor Jacko created a life size bronze of “Poppa” – and started again from scratch after a foundry fire.
Arts Programme
Pottery, drumming, painting and more: art at the NSIC in the spirit of Guttmann’s use of sport.
The Trust
Why the Trust was founded, what it achieved, and the people behind it.