Pioneers come in many shapes and forms. Daniel Hale Williams was a pioneer in surgery and is best known for performing one of the world’s first successful open-heart surgeries in 1893.
Born on January 18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, Williams lived with family friends in Baltimore, Maryland, after his father’s death.
Between 1866 to 1878, he was a shoemaker’s apprentice and barber until deciding to pursue his education.
In 1880 Hale enrolled in the Chicago Medical College after developing an interest in medicine, working in the office of a Wisconsin surgeon, receiving a degree three years later.
Notably, his education was funded by Mary Jane Richardson Jones, a leader of Chicago’s black community. After graduation, he opened his own medical office in Chicago, Illinois, where his patients were white and black.
Black doctors were not allowed to work in private hospitals, which led him to found the Provident Hospital in 1891, which provided a training residency for doctors and training school for nurses in Chicago.
Although Provident was established for the benefit of African-American residents, it is noted that it was one of the first hospitals where staff and patients were integrated from the beginning.
In 1893, Daniel Hale Williams became the first African American on record to perform pericardium successfully (open heart) surgery to repair a knife wound on a young black man, James Cornish, who had received severe stab wounds in his chest and performing this surgery without penicillin or blood transfusion.
With limited surgical equipment and medicine, the operation was successful, and without Cornish dying from infection, he recovered within 51 days and went on to live a long life.
In 1893, Daniel Hale Williams was appointed surgeon-in-chief of Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., a post he held until 1898. During this time, he strived to set high standards for doctors from all over the world.
Many traveled from all over the planet to witness his operations. He also made massive changes to the hospital, starting a training school for black nurses, employing multiracial staff members, and providing staff opportunities for many black physicians.
In addition, Williams co-founded the National Medical Association (NMA) in 1895 to allow black medical practitioners admission, who were denied admission to the all-white American Medical Association.
Williams worked with other hospitals during the early 20th century, including Cook County Hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago, until his retirement after a stroke in 1926.
He lived out his retirement years in Idlewild, Michigan, an all-black resort community, until his death on August 4, 1931, in relative obscurity at the age of 75.
Recognized for many honors in his life, including becoming the first black member of the exclusive American College of Surgeons in 1913, it is the achievement of performing the first open-heart surgery where Daniel Hale Williams’s legacy lies.
