Daniel was only 11 years old and was sent to Baltimore, MD, to work as a shoemaker’s apprentice.įor the next 6 years, he worked at a variety of odd jobs on lake boats and in barbershops like his father, to make ends meet. As a result, the Williams children were separated. Willams’ mother alone could not provide for the family unit. The Williams family did well until his father died of consumption during a visit to Sarah’s family.
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His mother was born from a free family in Annapolis, MD, headed by a clergyman. His family was a mix of German immigrants, Native Americans, and free blacks who were active in the abolitionist movement as members of the National Equal Rights League. He was the fifth of six children born to Daniel Williams, Jr., and Sarah Price Williams.īoth his parents came from a racial mix of immigrants. Site design and implementation ©2003 WGBH Educational Foundation.Daniel Hale Williams, born on January 18, 1856, was named after his father Daniel Williams, Jr. Site content and Flash design ©2003 Spark Media. Partners of the Heart Home | The Film & More | Early Years | BreakthroughsĪmerican Experience | Feedback | Search & Site Map | Shop | Subscribe | Web Credits The Daniel Hale Williams Medical Reading Club in Washington, D.C., commemorates his achievements.Įarly Years: Pearl High | Living with Segregation | Pivotal Decisions Dan." In words that could later be said of Vivien Thomas, a colleague wrote, "His greatest pride was that directly or indirectly, he had a hand in the making of most of the outstanding Negro surgeons of the current generation."ĭr. In 1913, he became the first African American to be inducted into the American College of Surgeons.Īs a sign of the esteem of the black medical community, until this day, a "code blue" at the Howard University Hospital emergency room is called a "Dr. Williams returned to Chicago, and continued as a surgeon. In 1895, he helped to organize the National Medical Association for black professionals, who were barred from the American Medical Association. There, he made improvements that reduced the hospital's mortality rate. Williams became chief surgeon of Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C., the most prestigious medical post available to African Americans then. The landmark operation was hailed in the press. He lived for over 20 years after the surgery. Just 51 days after his apparently lethal wound, James Cornish walked out of the hospital. With the heart beating and transfusion impossible, Williams rinsed the wound with salt solution, held the edges of the palpitating wound with forceps, and sewed them together. Then, inspecting the pericardium (the sac around the heart) he saw that the knife had left a gash near the right coronary artery.
Underneath, he found a damaged left internal mammary artery and sutured it. He cut the rib cartilage and created a small trapdoor to the heart. In a cramped operating room with crude anesthesia, Williams inspected the wound between two ribs, exposing the breastbone. He asked six doctors (four white, two black) to observe while he operated. When Cornish started to go into shock, Williams suspected a deeper wound near the heart. One hot summer night in 1893, a young Chicagoan named James Cornish was stabbed in the chest and rushed to Provident. After months of hard work, he opened Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses on May 4, 1891, the country's first interracial hospital and nursing school. In 1889, the governor of Illinois appointed him to the state's board of health.ĭetermined that Chicago should have a hospital where both black and white doctors could study and where black nurses could receive training, Williams rallied for a hospital open to all races. He soon began teaching anatomy at Chicago Medical College and served as surgeon to the City Railway Company. Williams studied medicine at Chicago Medical College.Īfter his internship, he went into private practice in an integrated neighborhood on Chicago's south side. At age 20, Williams became an apprentice to a former surgeon general for Wisconsin. He completed secondary school in Wisconsin. Young Daniel started as a shoemaker, but quickly knew he wanted more education. After his father died, his mother, Sara Price Williams, moved the family several times. Williams was born in 1858 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, the fifth of seven children.
The son of a barber, Daniel Hale Williams founded the first black-owned hospital in America, and performed the world's first successful heart surgery, in 1893. African American Medical Pioneers: Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931)
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