On the occasion of the centenary of the first blood transfusion in Slovakia, the National Bank of Slovakia emitted a collector Euro coin with this theme. The ceremonial presentation of the new collector Euro coins took place in the Pálffy Manor in Svätý Jur on Wednesday, June 21, 2023. Professor Ján Kňazovický, the pioneer of blood transfusion in former Czechoslovakia, founded our faculty and he was its first dean. He performed the first blood transfusion in 1923 in Bratislava as a young assistant working at the then-only surgical clinic in Slovakia under the direction of Professor Stanislav Kostlivý. The patient-recipient survived a previously unused medical procedure and became good friends with the blood donor…
“The personality of Professor Ján Kňazovický was written in capital letters in the history of Slovak medicine, as well as in the history of our Faculty of Medicine. His name is inextricably linked not only with the first blood transfusion in Slovakia and the development of the first transfusion stations but also with the founding of the Košice surgical school and the development of Košice vascular surgery and last but not least with the establishment of our Faculty, which he headed in 1948-1950 as its first dean,” says prof. Peter Jarčuška, M.D., PhD., current Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, UPJŠ.
