How was VWD discovered?
In 1926, Dr. Erik von Willebrand, a Finnish physician, published the first description of an inherited bleeding disorder that was different from hemophilia. Dr. von Willebrand’s studies into this new disease began with a family living on the island of Föglö in the Åland archipelago in the Baltic Sea. One of the women (the first known sufferer of VWD) in this family bled to death in her teens from menstrual bleeding, and four other family members had also died before her as a result of uncontrolled bleeding.
