Tag: Surgery
-
William Bradley Coley: Visionary or snake oil salesman?
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Dr. William Bradley Coley graduated with a B.A. in the Classics from Yale College. He then taught Latin and Greek in Portland, Oregon, for two years before entering Harvard Medical School. After completing the three-year Harvard course in two years, he passed a competitive examination and was appointed an intern…
-
The surgeon
Joseph RumenappChicago, Illinois, United States He kicked the scrub sink again—only a trickle. He missed the smell of the iodine in the morning, almost as much as he missed the chill of the operating room itself. “Don’t bother, Doc,” the scrub nurse chimed behind him. “You won’t be touching sterile anyway.” He walked into the…
-
Burn
Arthur WilliamsCincinnati, Ohio, United States Adapted from a chapter of the novel Krooked Ketamine (self-published, 2024) by Arthur Williams. As a surgeon, I have performed a fair amount of skin grafts over the years. To need a skin graft, a person has to have sustained a serious injury, usually a terribly painful burn or an…
-
A trio of Confederate military surgeons: Samuel Moore, James McCaw and Joseph Jones
Jonathan DavidsonDurham, North Carolina, United States The Civil War between the States took a heavy toll, claiming over 600,000 lives, or two percent of the population. Countless more suffered from injuries and other diseases. Reilly1 has listed some of the advances in medical care that took place during this conflict. For the most part, the…
-
Sushruta, the father of rhinoplasty
Matthew TurnerHershey, Pennsylvania, United States From around 1000–800 BC, a golden age of medicine dawned in ancient India, where ayurveda, the “science of life,” flourished.1 At the heart of this revolution was the legendary physician Sushruta, whose writings in the famous Samhita describe surgeries from cataract removal to treatment of bladder stones, diseases including diabetes…
-
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker: A trailblazer for female surgeons
Shabnam ParsaLeshya BokkaLiam ButchartStony Brook, New York, United States Dr. Mary Edwards Walker (1832–1919) was the first female surgeon in the United States—a pioneering educator, clinician, and medical innovator.1 Her academic path was paved by her parents’ dedication to education. Vesta and Alva Walker established the first free school in Oswego, New York, where they…
-
Bioarchaeological findings support ancient representations of surgical limb amputation, part two: Examples from the New World
Peter de SmetNijmegen, Netherlands See Part One for examples from the Old World Case 4: Finger amputation among the ancient Maya Iconography1 The vessel in Fig. 1 is in the collections of the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin (inv.no. IV Ca 15186 a). It was found to contain the phalanges of a little finger together with…
-
Bioarchaeological findings support ancient representations of surgical limb amputation, part one: Examples from the Old World
Peter de SmetNijmegen, Netherlands See Part Two for examples from the New World Surgical amputation is defined here as the cutting or chopping off a protruding part of the body (as a whole or partial limb). It has been known for a long time that surgical amputees can be represented in the artifacts of ancient…
-
Ophthalmic surgeon Evan Harries Harries-Jones
Frederick O’DellNorthampton, United Kingdom “If Evan Harries Harries-Jones had lived for one more day, he would have completed half-a-century’s service as ophthalmic surgeon to the Northampton General Hospital…”1 Born in 1874 in Rhyl, in the county of Flintshire, Wales, Harries-Jones was proud of being Welsh and was fluent in the Welsh language.2 He commenced his…
-
Additional French surgeons
By the close of the fourteenth century, France emerged as the preeminent center of European surgical practice. Its early pioneers included Theodoric Borgognoni of Lucca (1205–1296), who played a pivotal role in elevating surgery from a craft to a respected medical discipline; Guido Lanfranc of Milan (1250–1315), who further refined surgical techniques; and Henri de…