Daniel Hale Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Daniel Hale Williams | |
 Daniel Hale Williams, c. 1900
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| Born | January 18, 1856 Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania |
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| Died | August 4, 1931 Idlewild, Michigan |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Chicago Medical College |
| Occupation | Surgeon |
| Title | Dr |
| Spouse | Alice Johnson |
| Children | 0 |
| Parents | Daniel and Sarah Price Williams |
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (January 18, 1856 - August 4, 1931) was an American surgeon.[1] He was known as one of the most skilled American surgeons of his era. Williams is known today for performing an early surgery on the pericardium, repairing a knife wound with the use of sutures. He performed this surgery at Provident Hospital, Chicago, on July 10, 1893, a hospital which he founded, and one of the few hospitals that welcomed African-Americans. He is sometimes credited as the first surgeon to perform a fully successful open heart surgery. Others had performed similar procedures, after which patients sometimes recovered, but did not survive long-term.
He was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, to Daniel and Sarah Price Williams, a middle-class free black family. In 1883, Williams graduated from the Chicago Medical College, known today as Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and began his medical career in the office of Surgeon General Henry Palmer in Janesville, Wisconsin.
In 1893 Dr. Williams repaired the torn pericardium of James Cornish, who had suffered a knife wound to the heart. This was the second repair of a wound to the pericardium on record, the first having been performed by Dr. Henry Dalton.[2] Even earlier successful pericardial surgeries were performed in the early 19th century by Francisco Romero, a Spanish surgeon, and Napoleon's physician, Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey.[3]
During the administration of President Grover Cleveland, Dr. Williams was appointed as Surgeon-in-Chief of Freedman's Hospital in Washington, DC, another of the few hospitals that would admit African-Americans. In addition to organizing the hospital, Dr. Williams also established a training school for African-American nurses at the facility.
Dr. Williams was a teacher of Clinical Surgery at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee and was an attending surgeon at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He worked hard to create more hospitals for African Americans. In 1895 he co-founded the National Medical Association for black doctors, and in 1913 he became a charter member and the only black in the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Williams died of a stroke on August 4, 1931 in Idlewild, Michigan.
In 1898, Dr. Williams married Alice Johnson, daughter of the sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel and a maid. [4].
Williams was honoured, amongst others, for his achievements in the Stevie Wonder song Black Man, from the album Songs in the Key of Life.[1]
[edit] Trivia
Daniel Hale Williams is often confused with the other African American surgeon, Vivien Thomas. Although both are notable for performing the first heart surgery, Daniel Hale Williams had done before him.
[edit] References
- ^ Williams, Daniel Hale
- ^ Shumacker, Harris B. (1992). The Evolution of Cardiac Surgery. Indiana University Press, page 12. Retrieved on 2007-05-12.
- ^ Daniel Hale Williams: first successful heart surgery?
- ^ The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.9, page 396, Nov. 1907, U. of Illinois Press
- Beatty, William K., Williams, Daniel Hale, American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.
- Yenser, Thomas (editor), Who's Who in Colored America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of African Descent in America, Who's Who in Colored America, Brooklyn, New York, 1930-1931-1932 (Third Edition)
- Harlan, et al (editors), Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol. 9, p.396
- Daniel Hale Williams article from Encyclopedia Britannica
- Buckler, Helen Daniel Hale Williams 1968. Pitman, New York.
[edit] External links
- The Provident Foundation
- Profile of Daniel Hale Williams - The Black Inventor Online Museum
