Saving Cornish

     Daniel Hale Williams isn't a name that jumps off the page like other notable names. But his accomplishments stand tall nonetheless. He was one of the first African American surgeons in the country. In 1883, he got his degree from what is now known as the Northwestern University Medical School. He then ran into a roadblock, as African Americans weren't generally allowed to work in hospitals in Chicago. He solved this problem by starting his own hospital. In 1891 he opened up Provident Hospital, the country's first African American owned and operated hospital. This valuable resource provided educational opportunities to aspiring doctors in the black community, as well as care options for patients that previously may not have been able to be treated at other hospitals.

     By 1893, the hospital was up and running. And while the energies of the city may have been concentrated in other places that year, life went on. On July 9 of that year, life would conspire to put Dr. Williams in the history books once more. On that day, a gentleman by the name of James Cornish was involved in a bar fight. After ostensibly losing the fight, Cornish was brought into Provident with a knife wound in his chest. With the patient dying, Dr. Williams didn't have much time to think. So, he opened him up right there and operated directly on the heart. There were no antibiotics, x-rays, or anesthesia as we know it today. Even with all that against him, Dr. Williams saved Cornish's life and he walked out of Provident 51 days later with a clean bill of health. Not just was Cornish's life saved, but Dr. William had performed one of the first successful pericardium heart surgeries in the United States.