Topics: Biology, Medicine, Diversity, Diversity in Science
Daniel Hale Williams was a physician who performed the first known open-heart surgery in the United States and who founded a hospital with an interracial staff.
Synopsis
Born on January 18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, Daniel Hale Williams pursued a pioneering career in medicine. An African-American doctor, in 1893, Williams opened Provident Hospital, the first medical facility to have an interracial staff. He was also the first physician to successfully complete open-heart surgery on a patient. Williams later became chief surgeon of the Freedmen’s Hospital.
Early Life
Daniel Hale Williams III was born on January 18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Price Williams and Daniel Hale Williams II. The couple had several children, with the elder Daniel H. Williams inheriting a barber business. He also worked with the Equal Rights League, a black civil rights organization active during the Reconstruction era.
After the elder Williams died, a 10-year-old Daniel was sent to live in Baltimore, Maryland, with family friends. He became a shoemaker’s apprentice but disliked the work and decided to return to his family, who had moved to Illinois. Like his father, he took up barbering, but ultimately decided he wanted to pursue his education. He worked as an apprentice with Dr. Henry Palmer, a highly accomplished surgeon, and then completed further training at Chicago Medical College.
Daniel Hale Williams. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 03:05, Jan 26, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-hale-williams-9532269.
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