Heart surgeryIn 1893, the suture of the pericardium (the fluid sac surrounding the heart muscle) performed by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. When a 24-yr-old victim of a stabbing during a bar-fight was brought to Provident Hospital in Chicago, Williams operated without using anesthesia to remove the knife, open the thoracic cavity, then suture the wound to the pericardium, a daring procedure for the time. He allowed a small (1/10" long) nick to heal on its own. The patient recovered and lived for at least 20 years afterward. Dr. Williams was the only African-American in a group of 100 charter members of the American College of Surgeons in 1913. He founded and became the first vice-president of the National Medical Association.« |
