LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION paying tribute to the life and accomplishments of
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, surgical pioneer of open heart surgery and its
sterilization procedures

WHEREAS, With February being Black History Month, it is a time to
reflect on the struggles and victories of African Americans throughout
our country's history and to recognize their numerous valuable contrib-
utions to society; and
WHEREAS, Daniel Hale Williams was born on January 18, 1856, in Holli-
daysburg, Pennsylvania; he was the fifth of seven children born to
Daniel and Sarah Williams; and
WHEREAS, Daniel Hale Williams's father was a barber and moved the
family to Annapolis, Maryland, but died shortly thereafter of tuberculo-
sis; 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 soon moved away to join his mother who
had relocated to Rockford, Illinois; and
WHEREAS, Daniel Hale Williams later moved to Edgerton, Wisconsin,
where he joined his sister and opened his own barber shop; after moving
to nearby Janesville, he became fascinated with a local physician and
decided to follow his path; and
WHEREAS, After following the example of his older brother studying law
for a short time, Daniel Hale Williams 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; and
WHEREAS, Because of primitive social and medical circumstances exist-
ing in that era, much of Dr. Williams's early medical practice called
for him to treat patients in their homes, including conducting occa-
sional surgeries on kitchen tables; in doing so, he 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 University; and
WHEREAS, On January 23, 1891, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams established the
Provident Hospital and Training School Association, a three story build-
ing which held 12 beds and served members of the community as a whole;
the school also served to train African American 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 changes in their condition and
22 had died; and
WHEREAS, 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, along with the primitive conditions of most hospitals; much
can be attributed to Dr. Williams's insistence on the highest standards
concerning procedures and sanitary conditions; in 1889, he was appointed
to the Illinois State Board of Health and one year later set forth to
create an interracial hospital; and
WHEREAS, Two and a half years later, on July 9, 1893, a young African
American man named James Cornish, was injured in a bar fight, stabbed in
the chest with a knife; upon being transported to Provident Hospital, he
was coming closer to death, having lost a great deal of blood and having
already gone into shock; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Williams was faced with the choice of opening the man's
chest and possibly operating internally when that was almost unheard of

in that particular day and 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; Dr.
Williams then made the decision to operate and opened the man's chest;
and
WHEREAS, Dr. Williams saw the damage to the man's pericardium (sac
surrounding the heart) and sutured it, and 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; and
WHEREAS, Unfortunately, Dr. 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 that day did spread the news and Dr. Williams
received the acclaim he deserved; and
WHEREAS, It should be noted however that while Dr. Williams 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; and
WHEREAS, In February of 1894, Dr. 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 depart-
ments, 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; and
WHEREAS, Upon his retirement, Dr. 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; Dr. Williams died on August 4, 1931, having set standards and
examples for surgeons, both Black and White, for many years to come;
now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to pay
tribute to the life and accomplishments of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams,
surgical pioneer of open heart surgery and its sterilization procedures.