1809: Dr. Ephraim McDowell, a pioneer in abdominal surgery, examines his patient and makes the decision to attempt the first surgical removal of an ovarian tumor, earning him the sobriquet "Father of Ovariotomy."
The 45-year-old patient, Jane Todd Crawford, had been misdiagnosed as being pregnant with twins. McDowell, who ran a surgical practice in Danville, Kentucky, offered a different diagnosis -- a large ovarian tumor. He decided to risk the previously untried surgery and set Christmas Day for the operation.
A reader today can only imagine Crawford's agony. McDowell, working without anesthetics or antibiotics, which were then unavailable, removed a 22-pound benign tumor. Crawford's suffering was rewarded, however: She made a complete recovery and lived until the ripe old age of 78.
McDowell's account of the operation, published in 1817, created a sensation in the medical world. He went on to perform eight more ovariotomies. Another notch in McDowell's distinguished medical bedpost occurred when he operated on future President James Polk, then a member of the Tennessee legislature, removing a gallstone and repairing a hernia.
Ironically, McDowell the abdominal expert died of a burst appendix in 1830. He was 58.
(Source: Today in Science History, Wikipedia)
