Daniel Hale Williams

By: Bianca V.and Shelomith H.

Early Life of Daniel Hale Williams

Daniel Hale Williams III was born to a barber on January 18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania as the fifth of seven children. After his father died, his mother moved the family several times. Williams completed his secondary school in Wisconsin, and at the age of 20 he became an apprentice to Dr. Henry Palmer, a surgeon. In 1880, he enrolled in the Chicago Medical College where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree (M.D.) four years later.

Opened First Interracial Hospital

After his internship, Williams opened his private practice in South Side Chicago and taught anatomy at Chicago Medical College. He was the first African American to serve as a surgeon at the City Railroad Company, adopting sterilization procedures for his office after recent findings on germ transmission and prevention. Due to the discrimination back in the day, African American citizens were barred from admission to hospitals while Black doctors were exempted from staff positions. Daniel Hale Williams believed this needed to change, so on May 4, 1891, he founded Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses, the country’s first interracial hospital and nursing school. Provident Hospital grew, as a result, their high success rate of inpatient recovery (87%).

Completes First Open-heart Surgery

On a summer night in 1893, a young man named James Cornish was severely stabbed in his chest and was rushed to Providence Hospital. When Cornish started to go into shock, Williams believed there was a deeper wound near the heart. He asked six doctors (four white doctors and two black doctors) to observe Cornish while he operated. Williams operated without X-rays in a cramped operating room with crude anesthesia. He inspected the wound between two ribs, exposing the breastbone. He cut the rib cartilage and created a small trapdoor to the heart, where he found and sutured a damaged left internal mammary artery. Inspecting the pericardium, he saw that the knife had left a gash near the right coronary artery. With the heart still beating, a transfusion was impossible, so Williams rinsed the wound with a salt solution, held the edges of the palpitating wound with forceps, and sewed them together. James completely recovered after 51 days and lived on for about 50 years longer.

Accomplishments

In 1891, he founded Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses.
In 1893, Daniel Hale Williams performed the first documented pericardium surgery.
In 1894, he was appointed the Chief Surgeon at Freedman’s hospital, where he improved surgical procedures, increased sterilization, launched ambulance services, and fixed other problems in the hospital.
In 1895, he co-founded the National Medical Association with Robert F. Boyd.

Bibliography

Daniel Hale Williams and the First Successful Heart Surgery. (n.d.). Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://columbiasurgery.org/news/daniel-hale-williams-and-first-successful-heart-surgery

Daniel Hale Williams. (2020, June 23). Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.biography.com/scientist/daniel-hale-williams

II, H. (2020, February 06).

Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931). Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/williams-daniel-hale-1856-1931/