Dr. Daniel Hale Williams Dr. Daniel Hale Williams was the first African American to perform the first successful open heart surgery. Williams accomplished many things over the course of his life and always tried to help other African Americans. He wanted to help others whether it was through surgery or just being involved in a Civil Rights activist league. By Williams performing the first successful heart surgery that changed health care forever. Daniel was successful, made a huge impact in health care, and was a great surgeon, and man.
In a small town in Pennsylvania called Hollidaysburg, a man was born named Daniel Hale Williams. He was born on January 18th, 1856, and out of 8 children he was the oldest son of Sarah and Daniel Williams.
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He wanted his privileges to be the same as any white doctor so he ended up co-founding the Provident Hospital. “During Williams’s tenure as physician-owner (1891-1912), Provident hospital grew, largely due to its extremely high success rate in patient recovery: 87 percent” (Ruffin). In 1983 Dr. Williams performed the first open heart surgery on a black young man and was successful. This is impressive because the time period where he done the surgery, he did not have many tools or preparations as open heart surgery now. Williams had to use many tactics and study the patient more in-depth than doctors do now. “The operation was done without X-rays, antibiotics, surgical prep-work, or tools of modern surgery. Dr. Williams' skills placed him and Provident Hospital at the fore-front of one of Chicago’s medical milestone” (“Who Was Dr. Daniel Hale …show more content…
He proved himself to be not only the best colored surgeon but the best all-around surgeon of his time. He was performing surgeries that nobody was doing and he was doing them successfully. He gained respect from other surgeons and ended up working in very large name hospitals such as Cook County and St. Luke Hospital. When he was in Chicago at St. Luke’s Hospital he experienced a stroke and ended up surviving through it. He then decided to retire and move to Idlewild, Michigan and live out the rest of his life in an all-black retirement home. Williams ended up passing in August 4th, 1931 at the age of 75 due to another