Today heart surgery still remains a very serious surgery procedure despite the many advances in medicine, but imagine what it was like to perform one of first ever 119 years ago today by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. The only African American member of the American College of Surgeons at the time, Dr. Williams was a man of great accomplishment. On July 9, 1893 he successfully performed open heart surgery at a hospital he founded, Provident Hospital in Chicago, which was the first interracial hospital in America. Throughout his career he sought to teach other African American doctors and nurses in an effort to make health care available to African Americans.
Dr. Williams was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. There is some debate on the year he was born but the U.S. Census records reflect 1858. His father, was a free black man who worked as a barber and his mother was of Scottish-Irish descendent. Dr. Williams was the fifth of six children and he went on to complete Chicago Medical College in 1898. This was the same year he married Alice Johnson.
His professionalism and outstanding work remains admired today as we join others in honoring the significant achievements and contributions to the science of medicine by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams.
