The Education of a Surgeon
Daniel Hale Williams was born on January 18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Williams’s family lived well until his father became sick and died. With too many children to take care of alone, Williams’s mother sent him to Maryland to apprentice as a shoemaker. He soon left Maryland out of loneliness and found a variety of work over the ensuing years, from jobs on boats to cutting hair. However, he finally completed his high school education in 1877. Williams was unsure of where life would take him next, for though he was bright, he had yet to land on a profession. That all changed when he apprenticed for the well-known surgeon Henry Palmer.After studying under Palmer for a couple of years, Williams entered medical school. His university options were limited because he was African American, but he was accepted to Chicago Medical College (which would later become Northwestern University). Williams graduated from medical school a few years later and spent a year as an intern at Mercy Hospital in Chicago. Soon, he completed his internship and opened a practice of his own on the South Side. Williams taught anatomy for a few years at his alma mater while running his practice. As his reputation as a surgeon grew, so did his responsibilities. In 1889, he was appointed to the State Board of Health.
With all of this education and experience in both the medical field and in leadership, Williams was confronted with the need for a hospital that would treat and train anyone, regardless of race. With the help of many in the city, Williams and others raised the money and support necessary to found Provident Hospital and Training School. In 1891, the hospital began operating. It was this hospital that James Cornish entered on that summer night in 1893.
A Daring Operation
As Cornish deteriorated, Williams called some of his colleagues to come to observe the surgery, for he knew what he was about to attempt was risky, but also important if successful. Williams began operating, first removing some cartilage and then stitching up a bleeding artery. Another problem, however, was the cut Williams found in the pericardium, the sac around the heart. Williams had to work fast, for Cornish wouldn’t receive a blood transfusion as that procedure wouldn’t be considered safe until the turn of the century. If Cornish lost too much blood, he simply wouldn’t make it.Williams sutured the laceration to the pericardium closed. A local newspaper, the Chicago Inter Ocean, ran an article about this incredible achievement. “The operation did not last very long, but it was most delicate as well as daring,” the Inter Ocean declared. “Since the operation, which took place on July 9, the healing process has been going admirably, and the patient yesterday gave every indication of recovery.”
Cornish’s recovery would include some minor complications, but it continued to go well. The patient, whom many considered as good as dead when he entered the hospital, walked out healthy just a little over a month later. Instead of simply pronouncing the wound fatal, Williams performed a surgery that most thought impossible. Though some sources indicate that another doctor might have performed a similar surgery a couple of years prior, Williams’s surgery still changed Cornish’s life and was an important contribution to medicine.
Williams continued to practice medicine and held several prestigious positions throughout his career, such as chief surgeon of Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. However, regardless of Williams’s many achievements, he is still best known as one of the first doctors to sew up a man’s bleeding heart.
