The Defense of Lviv is one of the most important episodes in Polish history. On November 1–22, 1918, the civilian population of the city (mostly secondary school and university students) fought against Ukrainian soldiers of Dmytro Wytowsky who made a coup d’etat. On November 1, 1918, the Lviv Defense Headquarters (LDH) was organized, headed by Capt. Czesław Mączyński (1881–1935). The health service was based on two main hospitals: Hospital No. 1 “Technika” and Hospital No. 2 “Dwójka”. Colonel Henryk Jan Glaser was a commandant of Hospital No. 2. Ludwik Rydygier (1850–1920) a world famous Polish physician, who was the first man to perform resection of the stomach for peptic ulcer, served as chief surgeon in “Dwójka”. He was also the second doctor in history, who made pyloric resection for gastric cancer. For many years he was the head of the Surgery Clinical Hospitals of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the University of Lviv. During World War I he was the commander of the Austrian Military Hospital in Brno in Moravia. He was famous for his love of the uniform and military lifestyle. At that time Poland was partitioned by Russia, Austro‑Hungary and Prussia. Rydygier was a great Polish patriot and despite his age he joined the Polish Army in 1918 to fight for the independence of his homeland. During the Defense of Lviv Rydygier was the chief surgeon of the Military Hospital No. 2, where he assisted the wounded soldiers of both sides of the conflict. He died on June 26, 1920 in Lviv, and was buried in a general’s uniform in the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lviv.