Daniel Hale Williams
Early successful pericardial surgery; founder of Provident Hospital
At a glance
- Inventor
- Daniel Hale Williams
- Life
- 1856–1931
- Birthplace
- Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania
- Country
- United States
- Region
- United States
- Era
- 1900–1950
- Fields
- Medicine & Health
- Evidence
- Documented
- Records
- 0 in this archive
What they did
In 1893 Williams operated on a stab wound to the chest, repairing the pericardium; the patient survived. He had founded Provident Hospital in Chicago two years earlier as an interracial hospital and nurse-training school.
Historical context
Chest surgery was considered near-suicidal before antibiotics. Black physicians were barred from hospital staffs, and Black women from nursing schools.
The legacy
Provident trained generations of Black physicians and nurses. Williams co-founded the National Medical Association in 1895.
The evidence
Daniel Hale Williams biographical file
Primary recordProvident Hospital institutional records
Institutional record
Documentation strength
- 2
- Sources
- 1
- Primary
- 2
- Publishers
Calculated from the sources actually attached to this record — the closer a source sits to the original document, the more it counts. It is never asserted by hand.