Early career After beginning his career as an unpaid assistant surgeon at a Viennese clinic, Eisenmenger secured a position at the
laryngology clinic of
Leopold von Schrötter in 1894. By the following year, Eisenmenger was suffering from poor health. Von Schrötter, who had become something of a father figure to Eisenmenger, arranged for him to become the personal physician to the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who had just been diagnosed with
tuberculosis. von Schrötter thought that such a position would be less physically taxing for Eisenmenger than other positions in medicine. He worked for the archduke from about 1895 until Ferdinand's assassination in June 1914. "You and the valet are my only friends," Ferdinand once told Eisenmenger. Even before it was published, the work generated some controversy among Viennese physicians because Eisenmenger included information that was thought to violate standards of
doctor-patient confidentiality. Eisenmenger married the former Anna Hoberg, and they had two daughters, Anna and Hilde. Eisenmenger's wife was also connected to royalty. When Archduchess of Austria
Infanta Maria Theresa of Portugal arranged to sell the
Napoleon Diamond Necklace (worth US$450,000 at the time) in the U.S., she received only a few thousand dollars in return, so she sent Anna Hoberg Eisenmenger to the U.S. to recover the necklace.
Archduke Leopold of Austria, Prince of Tuscany was jailed on a
grand larceny charge in the matter, but he was acquitted at trial.
Eisenmenger's syndrome In an 1897 article in a German medical journal, Eisenmenger described signs of
low blood oxygen levels (including
a bluish hue to the skin and
nail clubbing) in a 32-year-old man who had been born with a
ventricular septal defect. ==Later life==