Ernest Bors

Who was Ernest Bors?

Ernest Herman Joseph Bors, MD was a pioneer in the multidisciplinary care of individuals with spinal cord injury. He earned his medical degree in 1925 at Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Early in his career he studied anatomy and held research and faculty positions at the universities in Zurich, Switzerland and Freiburg, Germany. In 1938, he emigrated to the United States where he became a citizen. At the outbreak of World War II, Bors joined the Army Medical Corps.

Bors became interested in spinal cord injury while caring for veterans after the war. In 1944, he joined the staff of Hammond General Army Hospital in Modesto, California. As assistant chief of urology, Bors was urology consultant to the hospital’s Spinal Cord Injury Care Section. At that time, comprehensive care for the injured veterans was hindered by a lack of a cohesive approach to their complex medical and social problems. Bors was appalled by the lack of specific interventions for bladder management and other conditions secondary to spinal cord injury. He was motivated to devote his career to improving every aspect of the care of individuals with spinal cord injury.