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— Newsroom — Black History Month: A (surgical) affair of the heart

Black History Month: A (surgical) affair of the heart

Written by John Keenan
Published Feb 14, 2014

Daniel Hale Williams, M.D.

On Valentine’s Day at UNMC, it seems appropriate to look at a pioneering heart surgeon when discussing Black History Month.

A Pennsylvania native, Daniel Hale Williams, M.D., opened the first medical facility to have an interracial staff — Provident Hospital — in the early 1890s in Chicago. But he is probably best known as the first physician to successfully complete open-heart surgery.

His patient was a man named James Cornish, who had been stabbed in the chest. According to biography.com: “Without the benefits of a blood transfusion or modern surgical procedures, Williams successfully sutured Cornish’s pericardium (the membranous sac enclosing the heart).” The website also reports that Cornish lived for many years following the operation.

For more information on this groundbreaking African-American physician and surgeon, go to:
Biography.com: Daniel Hale Williams.

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