A Black Surgeon Performed The First Heart Surgery

February is devoted to Black History and heart health. Today TheVillageCelebration honors the intersection of the two by sharing the story of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams.

Dr. Williams was an African American surgeon who founded Provident Hospital in Chicago in 1891 – the first non-segregated hospital in the United States. But opening a hospital where healthcare was offered to all, regardless of race, was merely one of his firsts.

Two years after Williams opened Provident, a young Black man was admitted to the hospital with a knife wound to his chest after a barroom brawl in which he was an innocent bystander.
Medical professionals at the time avoided operating on the heart because they thought it was too dangerous.

There were no antibiotics at the time nor was there anesthesia or the technology that is so readily available today.

Dr. Williams cut a small hole in James Cornish’s chest using a scalpel.

According to the American Heart Association’s website, Dr. Williams cut a small hole in James Cornish’s chest using a scalpel. He then “repaired a severed artery and a tear in the sac surrounding” Cornish’s heart. The procedure earned Williams recognition as one of the first doctors in the world to successfully perform open heart surgery.

James Cornish lived another 20 years. And Dr. Williams made history. He was a former shoemaker’s apprentice and barber who longed to study medicine and persisted during an era when African Americans were often shut out of opportunities to become doctors and other professionals.

Provident Hospital is still open today as part of the Cook County Health System.