Open Heart Surgery Pioneered by Daniel Hale Williams

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery in 1893 at Provident Hospital in Chicago, which he founded. The patient, James Cornish, had been stabbed in the chest and was dying from a damaged blood vessel near his heart. Without X-rays, blood transfusions, or antibiotics, Dr. Williams opened Cornish's chest, repaired the pericardium, and the patient recovered fully, living for another 20 years. Despite this groundbreaking achievement, Williams received little recognition compared to white surgeons who performed similar procedures later.