Elise Sørensen
Elise Sørensen was a Danish nurse who invented the first disposable ostomy bag. She was born in Kalundborg on July 2, 1903, and worked as a home care nurse from 1929. In 1953 her sister needed an ostomy, and Sørensen saw how worried people were about bags leaking. She created a bag that could be attached with an adhesive ring. She patented the idea in 1954 with help from a lawyer and got plastics maker Aage Louis-Hansen to help produce it. His wife Johanne, who was also a nurse, convinced him to give it a try. Sørensen paid for the early manufacturing and tested the bags in hospitals. The development led Louis-Hansen to found the Coloplast company in 1957. Sørensen stopped working that year due to depression and died on July 5, 1977, in a psychiatric hospital.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:50 (CET).