Good morning
Grace and peace be unto you.
Since to is wear red day I wanted to in corporate that with black history.
In 1893, Chicago surgeon Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery, in what would become both a significant medical advancement, and a huge step in the fight for equality, since Williams was one of the nation’s few black cardiologists at the time.
Called “the father of black surgery,” Williams’ name is absent from many medical history books, according to TMW Media, which makes educational videos for use in schools.
Williams studied medicine at Northwestern University’s Chicago-based medical school after apprenticing with Dr. Henry Palmer, becoming one of the first black physicians in the city when he earned his M.D. in 1883, BET Health News reports. In addition to his notable accomplishments as a surgeon, Williams is remembered for founding the Provident Hospital and Training School in 1891, inspired by the experience of a black woman who was denied from nursing schools because of her race.
On July 9, 1893, a man entered Provident Hospital with a stab wound dangerously close to his heart, according to NewsOne. Williams operated, repairing the heart’s lining surgically, and the patient recovered fully within two months. “Dr. Hale Williams, back in 1893, had performed the first cardiac operation in the United States, and possibly the world as far as records show,” Dr. Jonathan O. Nwiloh, a cardiothoracic surgeon, told TMW Media.
Reopened in 1993 after a six-year closure brought on by financial difficulties, Provident Hospital of Cook County still operates, and holds the distinction of being the nation’s first black-owned and operated hospital in the country, according to the Provident Foundation, which focuses on preserving the institution’s historical legacy.
