Jayant Radhakrishnan
Anthony Chin
Chicago, Illinois, United States

In May of 1881, Drs. Charles Warrington Earle and Abraham Reeves Jackson conceived of a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago (P&S). A core group of physicians immediately procured the necessary licenses and certificates and purchased a lot on Harrison and Honore Streets, near Cook County Hospital. By December, a faculty of eight professors was appointed, a curriculum was set, and classes commenced in September 1882. By 1900, Governor John Peter Altgeld arranged for college property to be handed over to the University of Illinois, making it the College of Medicine of the University of Illinois. P&S ceased to exist in 1913 once their faculty and alumni donated school stock to the University of Illinois trustees.1,2 In the 1980s, the college was renamed the Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine and then it became the University of Illinois College of Medicine (UICOM), Chicago.
Initially, P&S students obtained their clinical experience at Cook County Hospital and the West Side Free Dispensary on the first floor of P&S. By 1883, a hospital with one male and one female ward was set up. The student body grew rapidly, requiring P&S to buy the neighboring post-graduate building by 1896 and, in 1900, the building of West Division High School, which had moved apparently because flirtations between the medical students and the high school girls had become a problem.3
The Chicago Cubs played on the West Side of Chicago from 1885–1915. The second park they played in lay between Taylor, Wood, Polk, and Lincoln (renamed Wolcott in 1939) streets.4 In 1914, the Cook County Psychopathic Hospital was built at the corner of Polk and Wood, adjacent to left field.5 Some believe the phrase “out of left field” for something strange or odd originated here.6 After the Cubs moved, the land was sold to the College of Medicine. By 1932, a new college building, clinics, hospital, laboratories, college of dentistry, and facilities to study pathology, bacteriology, and public health were all built at this site. It was named the Research and Education Hospital. This University of Illinois Hospital was replaced in 1982 with a new one at 1740 West Taylor Street.
Eminent Chicago surgeons became professors at P&S.7 Nicholas Senn, Christian Fenger, John B. Murphy, Robert Laughlin Rea, and others were appointed as professors in parallel disciplines such as Surgical Anatomy, Principles and Practice of Surgery & Clinical Surgery, and simply Clinical Surgery. The first professor, Daniel Atkinson King Steele, was actively involved from the very beginning until he attained emeritus status in 1917. He started as Professor of Orthopedic Surgery but over time filled many roles in the surgical services and also served as President of the Board of Directors.1 He wrote the treatise “The differential diagnosis of scrotal tumors,” even though he was an orthopedic surgeon.8
The next was Albert John Ochsner, Chair of Clinical Surgery from 1901 until his death in 1925.9 His greatest contribution was in the treatment of acute appendicitis, but he is best remembered for mentoring his nephew who later founded the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana.10 It is unclear why Charles Davison, Professor of Surgery and Clinical Surgery, is also listed as the Head of the Department from 1917.11 He published a book entitled Autoplastic Bone Surgery and was later appointed Emeritus Professor.12
From 1926 until his death in 1934, Carl Arthur Hedblom, a thoracic surgeon, was in charge. He made great advances in the management of thoracic tuberculosis and thoracoplasty.13 Charles Bernard Puestow joined the university in 1932 as an assistant in surgery but left during World War II to command the 27th Evacuation Hospital. On his return, he became a clinical professor and head of the surgical service at the affiliated Hines Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital. He established the first surgical residency program at an American VA hospital in 1946 and trained 1,000 surgical residents in his twenty-four years in that position. He is best known for devising a longitudinal pancreato-jejunostomy to treat chronic pancreatitis with ductal obstruction and dilation. He also started the Illinois Surgical Society.14
Eric Oldberg was the interim chief of surgery from 1934 to 1936. Once Warren Cole was appointed, Oldberg became the head of neurology and neurosurgery until 1971. His contributions were in civic activities for the city such as the Chicago Board of Health, Mayor’s Commission to the Board of Education and the Chicago Orchestral Association, and the Ravinia Festival Association.15
In the 1930s, the University of Illinois decided to hire full-time academically-oriented department heads. The first one was the head of surgery, Dr. Warren Henry Cole, from Washington University, St. Louis in 1936.16 He developed the Graham-Cole cholecystogram, which was the only test for gallbladder disease until ultrasonography became available fifty years later. It was also valuable in evaluating liver functions. Dr. Cole described the events in his inimitable style in two articles.17,18 In Chicago, he concentrated on preventing the spread of cancer cells during operations19 and in determining the role of host immunity in malignancies.20 He also established a surgical training program. Dr. Olga Jonasson, who was the best student in surgery in her medical school graduating class, was refused a position in the training program.21,22 Apparently, she wrote to Dr. Cole to reconsider his decision and made every one of her professors co-sign her letter.

Dr. Lloyd Milton Nyhus took over as head of surgery from Dr. Cole in March 1967.23 A protégé of Dr. Henry Harkins at the University of Washington, his work on the management of peptic ulcers and groin hernias was well known. He participated in Harkin’s study on treating peptic ulcer disease with vagotomy combined with partial distal gastrectomy and gastroduodenostomy.24,25 He also modified the previously described preperitoneal approach for femoral hernias to enable surgery on all groin hernias.26 In Chicago, he continued to study and refine both procedures to increase their efficacy while reducing untoward effects. Important studies conducted in his laboratory included modification of Nissen fundoplication so it would prevent reflux but not cause gas bloat27 and oral preoperative antibiotics to reduce complications after bowel surgery.28 Resident and medical student education were of prime importance to him, and he arranged rotations to Cook County and West Side VA (now Jesse Brown) Hospitals and even to suburban Hinsdale. He helped organize a surgical residency program involving six Chicago hospitals under the University’s umbrella. The original six Metropolitan Group of Hospitals (MGH or Metro-6) were Mercy, Illinois Masonic, Weiss Memorial, Lutheran General, Ravenswood, and MacNeal. Surgeons from other countries were always welcome in his department and laboratory. Surgical residents were encouraged to spend a part of their residency in other countries. In time, the medical environment in the country changed, and state support for the institution waned. Dr. Nyhus stepped down as department head in 1989 but was academically active for another sixteen years.
The next Head of Surgery, Dr. Gerald S. Moss, focused on the management of trauma. In 1965, Lieutenant Commander Moss was placed in charge of the Frozen Blood Project and the Shock Research Unit in DaNang, Vietnam. In modern battles, large numbers of combatants are injured simultaneously and each one may have multiple life-threatening wounds. They are then evacuated en masse to the base hospital. Under such conditions, a bank with separated frozen blood products enables adequate amounts of appropriate blood components to be administered to patients who need them without wasting a product when it is not required. Waste is also reduced because separated blood products are preserved for optimal survival of each one.29,30 He received a citation and medal of commendation for this innovative work. He also carried out critically important research on resuscitation for hemorrhagic shock,31,32 which led to the development of stroma free hemoglobin for resuscitation. For debatable reasons, the FDA rescinded permission for its continued clinical evaluation after 2009.33 Dr. Moss took over the department on July 1, 1989, but within three months he was asked to take over as dean of what had morphed into the UICOM system with additional medical schools in Rockford, Peoria, and Champaign-Urbana. He served for sixteen years, negotiating egos and local interests. He continues now as an emeritus dean.
Dr. Herand Abcarian, a colorectal surgeon of international repute, took over from Dr. Moss and served until 2007. His research has involved immunotherapy for condylomata accuminata, studies on intestinal organisms, and bowel preparations for endoscopy and colon and rectal surgery. His clinical interests have covered a wide range of benign and malignant colorectal and anal conditions. At the university, he was involved in an especially important project conducted in conjunction with Dr. Enrico Benedetti, then the chief of transplant surgery. They developed a protocol for segmental small bowel transplantation in short bowel patients from living related donors. They first carried it out in adults,34 then in children. They even carried out combined small bowel and liver transplants in children.35
This was a time of many changes with hospitals closing and others re-arranging their affiliations. In addition, the state was no longer interested in spending money on the institution. The situation required the staff to generate more income clinically while maintaining their responsibilities as educators and researchers. Dr. Abcarian steered the department through the transition successfully.
Dr. Enrico Benedetti is a transplant surgeon who first widened the scope of that service at the university into a true abdominal organ transplant service.34,35 Since 2007, he has been the head of a vibrant department of surgery that is involved in twenty-first-century innovations in minimally invasive and robotic surgery. The department also trains residents and practicing surgeons from the US and abroad to hone their skills in a state-of-the-art, multimillion-dollar simulation laboratory before operating on patients. Clearly, the department of surgery continues to enhance the care of the surgical patient.
References
- Steele DAK, Quine WE. History of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In Cutler HG. (ed). Medical and Dental Colleges of the West: Historical and biographical: Chicago (Oxford Publishing Chicago, 1896), 341-408.
- Council of the Chicago Medical Society, History of Medicine and Surgery and Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago. (The Biographical Publishing Corporation, 1922), 217-24.
- Chicago Daily Herald (1900) cited in America’s Lost Colleges. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago, 1882-1913. https://www.lostcolleges.com. Accessed January 1, 2025.
- West Side Park, Wikipedia. Accessed 12-29-2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Park.
- Billings F. History of the Cook County Hospital from 1876 to Present Time. In History of Medicine and Surgery and Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago (The Biographical Publishing Corporation, 1922), 264-9.
- Nyhus LM. Personal communication, 1984.
- Bonner TN. Medicine in Chicago, 1850-1950: a chapter in the social and scientific development of a city (University of Illinois Press, 2nd edition, 1991), 108-22.
- Steele DAK, “The differential diagnosis of scrotal tumors,” JAMA August 14, 1886.
- “Albert J. Ochsner, MD, FACS, 1858-1925,” American College of Surgeons (n.d.). Accessed January 6, 2025. https://www.facs.org/about-acs/archives/past-highlights/ochsnerhighlight/
- Radhakrishnan J and Koo N, “The appendicitis conundrum,” Hektoen International, Spring 2022. https://hekint.org/2022/04/07/the-appendicitis-conundrum/
- History of Medicine and Surgery, 475.
- Davison C and Smith FD Autoplastic Bone Surgery. (Octavo, Chicago, 1916).
- Scannell JG, “Carl Arthur Hedblom (1879-1934),” J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 113, no. 4 (1997): 812.
- Bosmia AN and Christein JD, “Charles Bernard Puestow (1902-1973): American Surgeon and Commander of the 27th Evacuation Hospital during the Second World War,” J Med Biogr 25, no. 3 (2015):147-52. doi: 10.1177/0967772015608052. Epub 2015 Oct 27.
- Oldberg, Eric 1901-1986. Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center / Louis D. Boshes papers. Collection Box-1, Identifier: ghsl-22.
- Connaughton D. Warren Cole MD and the Ascent of Scientific Surgery (The Warren and Clara Cole Foundation, distributed by the University of Illinois Press, 1991).
- Cole WH, “The story of cholecystography,” Amer J Surg 99, no. 2 (1960): 206-22.
- Cole WH, “The development of cholecystography: the first fifty years,” Amer J Surg 136, no. 11 (1978): 541-60.
- Roberts SS, Hengesh JW, McGrath RG, Valaitas J, McGrew EA, Cole WH,.“Prognostic significance of cancer cells in the circulating blood: A ten-year evaluation,” Amer J Surg 113, no. 6 (1967): 757-62.
- Cole WH, “The increase in immunosuppression and its role in the development of malignant lesions,” J Surg Oncol 30, no. 3 (1985):139-44. https://doi.org/10.1002/jso.2930300303.
- Husser W and Neumayer L, “Olga Jonasson, MD: surgeon, mentor, teacher, friend,” Ann Surg 244, no. 6 (2006):839-840. doi: 10.1097/01.sla.0000248100.13289.c0
- Arensman RM (2025). Personal communication after conversation with Mrs. Betty Frisch, Dr. Cole’s scrub nurse. January 19, 2025.
- Rapaport MG and Wood DK. Lloyd M Nyhus, MD, FACS: Surgeon, Mentor, Visionary, for 20th Century Surgery (University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Surgery, 2013).
- Harkins HN, Schmitz EJ, Harper HP, et al., “A combined physiologic operation for peptic ulcer (partial distal gastrectomy, vagotomy and gastroduodenostomy); a preliminary report,” West J Surg Obstet Gynecol 61, no. 6 (1953):316-9.
- Harkins HN, Jesseph JE, Stevenson JK, Nyhus LM, “The ‘combined’ operation for peptic ulcer,” Arch Surg 80, no. 5 (1960):743-52. doi:10.1001/archsurg.1960.01290220035006.
- Nyhus LM, Stevenson JB, Listerud MB, Harkins HN, “Preperitoneal herniorrhaphy: A preliminary report in fifty patients,” West J Surg Obstet Gynecol 67, no.1(1959):48-54.
- Donahue PE, Samelson S, Nyhus LM, Bombeck CT, “The floppy Nissen fundoplication: Effective long-term control of pathologic reflux,” Arch Surg 120, no. 6 (1985):663-8.
- Nichols RL, Broido P, Condon RE, Gorbach SL, Nyhus LM, “Effect of preoperative neomycin-erythromycin intestinal preparation on the incidence of infectious complications following colon surgery,” Ann Surg 178, no.4 (1973):453-459.
- Moss GS, Valeri CR, Brodine CE, “Clinical experience with the use of frozen blood in combat casualties,” N Engl J Med 278, no.14 (1968):747-52. doi:10.1056/NEJM196804042781401.
- Radhakrishnan J, “Where the unusual was usual: The Cook County Hospital Blood Bank,” Hektoen International, Fall 2019
- Moss GS, “The use of balanced salt solution in the resuscitation of battle casualties in Vietnam,” Proc. Int. Med. Defence Symposia (Intermedes 67), Uppsala, Sweden. June 3-4, 1967.
- Moss GS, Siegel DC, Cochin A, “Effects of saline and colloid solutions on pulmonary function in hemorrhagic shock,” Surg Gynecol Obstet 133, no.1 (1971):53-58.
- Radhakrishnan J, “Avant Garde research on a blood substitute at the Hektoen Institute of Medical Research,” Hektoen International, Fall 2019. https://hekint.org/2019/12/16/avant-garde-research-on-a-blood-substitute-at-the-hektoen-institute-of-medical-research/
- Cicalese L, Sileri P, Asolati M, Rastellini C, Abcarian H, Benedetti E, “Low infectious complications in segmental living related small bowel transplantation in adults,” Clin Transpl 14, no.6 (2000):567-71. doi: 10.1034/j.1399-0012.2000.140609.x
- Testa G, Holterman M, John E, Kecskes S, Abcarian H Benedetti E, “Combined living donor liver/small bowel transplantation,” Transplantation 79, no.10 (2005):1401-4.
JAYANT RADHAKRISHNAN, MBBS, MS (Surg), FACS, FAAP, completed a Pediatric Urology Fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston following a Surgery Residency and Fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at the Cook County Hospital. He returned to the County Hospital and worked as an attending pediatric surgeon and served as the Chief of Pediatric Urology. Later he worked at the University of Illinois, Chicago from where he retired as Professor of Surgery & Urology, and the Chief of Pediatric Surgery & Pediatric Urology. He has been an Emeritus Professor of Surgery and Urology at the University of Illinois since 2000.
ANTHONY C. CHIN, MD, MS (Surg), MBA, FACS, FAAP trained in General Surgery at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago and then completed Fellowships in Surgical Critical Care and Pediatric Surgery at Children’s Memorial and Lurie Children’s Hospitals in Chicago. He then joined the Department of Pediatric Surgery at Lurie Children’s Hospital as an Attending Pediatric Surgeon and Program Director of Surgical Critical Care. He is a Professor of Surgery at Northwestern University and the Fineberg School of Medicine, Chicago since 2022.
Leave a Reply