Dr.Daniel Hale Williams 

1856 - 1931

 

 

Williams, Daniel Hale, 1858–1931, American surgeon, b. Hollidaysburg, Pa., M.D. Northwestern Univ., 1883. As surgeon of the South Side Dispensary in Chicago (1884–91), he became keenly aware of the lack of facilities for training African Americans like himself as doctors and nurses. As a result he organized the Provident Hospital, the first black hospital in the United States. In 1893, Williams performed the first successful closure of a wound of the heart and pericardium. In the same year President Cleveland appointed him surgeon in chief of Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D.C., and during his five-year tenure there he reorganized the hospital and provided a training school for African American nurses. From 1899 until his death he was professor of clinical surgery at Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Williams, Daniel Hale,25-12-2012,http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/williams-daniel-hale.html#ixzz2DzaHJ9MW

 

 

History: Provident Hospital

History: Provident Hospital

In 1889, Emma Reynolds, a young woman who aspired to be a nurse, was denied admission by each of Chicago's nursing schools on the grounds that she was black. Her brother, the Reverend Louis Reynolds, pastor of St. Stephen's African Methodist Episcopal Church, approached the respected black surgeon, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams for help. Unable to influence the existing schools, they decided to launch a new nursing school for black women. In 1890, Dr. Williams consulted with a group of black ministers, physicians and businessmen to explore establishing a nurse-training facility and hospital. There were only a few black physicians in Chicago at this time, and all had limited or no hospital privileges. The community leaders assured him of their support and energetic fund-raising began.

With the help of a few prominent white citizens as well as many black individuals and organizations, donations were collected. Rallies were scheduled on Chicago's south and west sides. The donations included supplies, equipment, and financial support. One of the most important early contributions came in 1890 when clergyman Reverend Jenkins Jones secured a commitment from the Armour Meat Packing Company for the down payment on a three-story brick house at 29th and Dearborn. This building, with 12 beds, became the first Provident Hospital.

Although the Hospital's formation was dependent on wealthy donors, and affluent donors stepped in at key moments in Provident's history, the generosity of community residents was also a critical factor. Community support was not restricted to financial contributions. The strong appeal of a hospital responsive to the black community elicited repeated waves of community volunteerism. Black residents, workers, employers, public officials, church leaders, and civic leaders contributed heavily to opening and sustaining the facility.

The initial priority was to secure an adequate hospital building. But the founders also considered community needs, the initial scope of services and the Hospital's overall mission. The legal papers were drawn up in 1891 for "Provident Hospital and Training School Association" and the charter stated: "The object for which it is formed is to maintain a hospital and training school for nurses in the City of Chicago, Illinois, for the gratuitous treatment of the medical and surgical diseases of the sick poor."

In 1891, a board of trustees, an executive committee, and a finance committee were named and a community advisory board and women's auxiliary board were assembled. The Hospital's first annual budget totaled $5,429. By the end of the year, Provident Hospital was designated an Illinois corporation, the training school for nurses opened and Dr. Williams was appointed hospital chief-of-staff. By 1892,seven women, including Emma Reynolds, had enrolled in the first nursing class. Provident was established to serve all races, and its patients and physicians were black and white during early years. The first physicians in surgical training, Dr. Austin Curtis, received two years of instruction under Dr. Williams, from 1891 through 1893. (Dr. Curtis became the first black surgeon-in-chief at Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C.)

Like any institution that endures for a century, Provident experienced many changes in its medical and administrative leadership. In 1894, Dr. Williams moved to Washington, D.C., where he was named surgeon-in-chief of Freedmen's Hospital. During this period, there were discussions on physician practice issues and the trustees were sharply divided as to whether physicians could hold medical appointments at other hospitals. Dr. George Cleveland Hall, an opponent of Dr. Williams, was named medical director and his supporters assumed control of Provident's trustee board.

As the demand for medical care grew, the Provident board initiated planning to expand. An 1896 funding campaign raised sufficient funding to construct a new building on donated land at 36th and Dearborn. The effort was helped by abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who gave a public lecture in Chicago and presented a donation at the Hospital site to Dr. Williams. By 1897, the Hospital had 189 inpatients, and the outpatient clinic, the Armour Dispensary, treated approximately 6,000 patients. In 1898, the Hospital moved to the new 36th Street location, which had 65 beds.

A controversial educational affiliation with the University of Chicago came about in 1933. As part of the agreement, Provident purchased a building at 426 East 51st Street, previously occupied by the Chicago Lying-in Hospital. The newly refurbished, seven story facility added considerable space for patient care, education, and administrative functions. A four-story outpatient building was constructed and two apartment buildings at 50th and Vincennes were purchased to house student nurses. As evidence of its support, the University of Chicago established a one million dollar fund for teaching and research at Provident Hospital.

Provident had two final major financial crisis, one in the late 40's that was narrowly averted and one in the mid 80's. Increasing debt led to a series of efforts to sustain Provident, including developing an alliance with Cook County Hospital, and other public and private financing plans. None of these efforts were successful and the hospital declared bankruptcy in July 1987. Provident Hospital closed its doors in September 1987

The interest in reopening Provident Hospital remained a priority for many. Community groups and others tried to raise both funding and political support to reopen the hospital. These efforts were not successful. However, the long-standing interest of Cook County Hospital in Provident Hospital led the Cook County Board of Commissioners to acquire the hospital in 1991.

This coincided with the County's Bureau of Health Services' plan to improve service provision to County residents living on the south side of Chicago. After considerable investment in upgrading the physical plant, the Bureau reopened Provident Hospital in August 1993. The Hospital's traditional medical education role was reestablished in 1994 through an educational affiliation with Loyola University's Stritch School of Medicine. While no longer considered a black-run hospital, Provident continues to serve the health needs of the community, including a variety of health outreach efforts.

 

 

Provident hospital history,25-12-2012,http://www.providentfoundation.org/history/index.html

Daniel Hale Williams

Daniel Hale Williams was born on January 18, 1856 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He was the fifth of seven children born to Daniel and Sarah Williams. Daniel's father was a barber and moved the family to Annapolis, Maryland but died shortly thereafter of tuberculosis. Daniel's mother realized she could not manage the entire family and sent some of the children to live with relatives. Daniel was apprenticed to a shoemaker in Baltimore but ran away to join his mother who had moved to Rockford, Illinois. He later moved to Edgerton, Wisconsin where he joined his sister and opened his own barber shop. After moving to nearby Janesville, Daniel became fascinated with a local physician and decided to follow his path. He began working as an apprentice to the physician (Dr. Henry Palmer) for two years and in 1880 entered what is now known as Northwestern University Medical School. After graduation from Northwestern in 1883, he opened his own medical office in Chicago, Illinois.

Because of primitive social and medical circumstances existing in that era, much of Williams early medical practice called for him to treat patients in their homes, including conducting occasional surgeries on kitchen tables. In doing so, Williams utilized many of the emerging antiseptic, sterilization procedures of the day and thereby gained a reputation for professionalism. He was soon appointed as a surgeon on the staff of the South Side Dispensary and then a clinical instructor in anatomy at Northwestern. In 1889 he was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health and one year later set for to create an interracial hospital.

On January 23, 1891 Daniel Hale Williams established the Provident Hospital and Training School Association, a three story building which held 12 beds and served members of the community as a whole.

The school also served to train Black nurses and utilized doctors of all races. Within its first year, 189 patients were treated at Provident Hospital and of those 141 saw a complete recovery, 23 had recovered significantly, three had seen change in their condition and 22 had died. For a brand new hospital, at that time, to see an 87% success rate was phenomenal considering the financial and health conditions of the patient, and primitive conditions of most hospitals. Much can be attributed to Williams insistence on the highest standards concerning procedures and sanitary conditions.

Two and a half years later, on July 9, 1893, a young Black man named James Cornish was injured in a bar fight, stabbed in the chest with a knife. By the time he was transported to Provident Hospital he was seeking closer and closer to death, having lost a great deal of blood and having gone into shock. Williams was faced with the choice of opening the man's chest and possibly operating internally when that was almost unheard of in that day in age. Internal operations were unheard of because any entrance into the chest or abdomen of a patient would almost surely bring with it resulting infection and therefore death. Williams made the decision to operate and opened the man's chest. He saw the damage to the man's pericardium (sac surrounding the heart) and sutured it, then applied antiseptic procedures before closing his chest. Fifty one days later, James Cornish walked out of Provident Hospital completely recovered and would go on to live for another fifty years. Unfortunately, Williams was so busy with other matters, he did not bother to document the event and others made claims to have first achieved the feat of performing open heart surgery. Fortunately, local newspapers of the day did spread the news and Williams received the acclaim he deserved. It should be noted however that while he is known as the first person to perform an open heart surgery, it is actually more noteworthy that he was the first surgeon to open the chest cavity successfully without the patient dying of infection. His procedures would therefore be used as standards for future internal surgeries.

 

In February 1894, Daniel Hale Williams was appointed as Chief Surgeon at the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C. and reorganized the hospital, creating seven medical and surgical departments, setting up pathological and bacteriological units, establishing a biracial staff of highly qualified doctors and nurses and established an internship program. Recognition of his efforts and their success came when doctors from all over the country traveled to Washington to view the hospital and to sit in on surgery performed there. Almost immediately there was an astounding increase in efficiency as well as a decrease in patient deaths.

During this time, Williams married Alice Johnson and the couple soon moved to Chicago after Daniel resigned from the Freedmen's hospital. He resumed his position as Chief Surgeon at Provident Hospital (which could now accommodate 65 patients) as well as for nearby Mercy Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital, an exclusive hospital for wealthy White patients. He was also asked to travel across the country to attend to important patients or to oversee certain procedures.

When the American Medical Association refused to accept Black members, Williams helped to set up and served as Vice-President of the National Medical Association. In 1912, Williams was appointed associate attending surgeon at St. Luke's and worked there until his retirement from the practice of medicine.

Upon his retirement, Daniel Hale Williams had bestowed upon him numerous honors and awards. He received honorary degrees from Howard and Wilberforce Universities, was named a charter member of the American College of Surgeons and was a member of the Chicago Surgical Society. Williams died on August 4, 1931, having set standards and examples for surgeons, both Black and White, for years to come.


Daniel Hale William,25-12-2012,http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/daniel-williams.html

History: Dr. Daniel Hale Williams

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931) the founder of Provident Hospital was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. His father was a barber who was deeply religious and imparted a sense of pride in his eight children. When his father died of tuberculosis, Daniel was nine years old. His mother, Sarah Price Williams moved the family to Baltimore to live with relatives. Daniel was apprenticed to a shoemaker in Baltimore for three years. By age 17, he had also studied and become a successful barber and lived with the Anderson family in Janesville, Wisconsin where he worked in their barber-shop. He attended high school and later an academy where he graduated at the age of twenty-one.

He began his studies of medicine as an apprentice under Dr. Henry Palmer, a prominent surgeon. Dr. Palmer had three apprentices and all were accepted in 1890 into a three-year program at the Chicago Medical School, which was affiliated with Northwestern University. It was considered one of the best medical schools. Daniel graduated with an M.D. degree in 1883.

Dr. Williams' began practice in Chicago at a time when there were only three other black physicians in Chicago. He secured an appointment at the South Side Dispensary, where he could practice medicine and surgery. He had appointments with the City Railway Company and the Protestant Orphan Asylum. He also maintained his affiliation with Northwestern University Medical School for four years while serving as an anatomy instructor.

Considered a thoughtful and skilled surgeon, Dr. Williams' practice grew as he treated both black and white patients. But he was acutely aware of the limited opportunities for black physicians. In 1889, he was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health (now known as the Illinois Department of Public Health), and worked with medical standards and hospital rules. He was aware of the prejudice against black patients in hospitals and the inferior treatment that was often dispensed. In 1890, Reverend Louis Reynolds, whose sister Emma was refused admission to nursing schools because she was black, approached Dr. Williams for help. This led to the founding of the Provident Hospital and Nursing Training School in 1891. The first years of the hospital were challenging, but successful. Dr. Williams insisted that his physicians remain abreast of emerging medical discoveries. He himself earned widespread renown as a surgeon in July 1893 when a young man named James Cornish entered the Hospital with chest stab wounds. Dr. Williams performed a new type of surgery to repair a tear in the heart lining, saving his life.

While proud of his accomplishments at Provident Hospital and those of the staff, Dr. Williams recognized that the hospital would need to grow to accommodate patients. In 1896, with substantial volunteer support, a new 65-bed hospital was opened.

In 1893, a friend, Judge Walter Q. Grisham, requested that he apply for the position of surgeon-in-chief at Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C. He served at Freedmen's Hospital from 1894 until 1898. He established a model internship program for graduate physicians and helped guide other improvements leading to a decline in the hospital mortality rate and a large number of surgical cases. In December 1895, he helped organize the National Medical Association (NMA), which was, at the time, the only national organization open to black physicians. He was selected to serve as its first vice president.

In 1898, he married Alice Johnson, a school teacher that he had met in Washington D.C., and they returned to Chicago. He returned to Provident where he became chief of surgery and in 1902 performed another breakthrough operation, successfully suturing a patient's spleen. He continued to develop his private practice in Chicago and to expand his involvement in community affairs.

In 1900, Dr. Williams was invited to become a visiting professor of surgery at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, one of two black medical schools in the country. He told the group at Meharry that there were now ten black hospitals in the country, where a decade before there had been none. Dr. Williams felt these hospitals had helped reduce the high mortality of blacks and that their role in training could make even larger contributions. His speeches were printed and influenced black leaders in other cities to consider starting hospitals. Throughout his career, he urged black physicians to become leaders in their communities.

Despite his national prominence, Dr. Williams faced differences with Provident's administrators and other physicians, principally over hospital privilege issues. Yet, he continued working at Provident and maintained an active national travel schedule until 1912, when he resigned from Provident after being appointed attending staff surgeon at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago (now known as Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center). He served as an attending surgeon at St. Luke's Hospital until 1926. He remained in active practice in Chicago until he suffered a stroke in 1926. He then moved to Idlewild, Michigan where he lived in retirement until his death in 1931.

 

Dr. Williams received many honors, including being named a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons (1913) and being awarded an honorary degree from Howard University School of Medicine. At his death, he left donations to many organizations he had supported including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Meharry Medical College, Howard University and other institutions. These gifts helped provide expanded medical education opportunities for black students.

The provident foundation,2012,25-12-2012,http://www.providentfoundation.org/history/williams.html