Do you know who performed one of the first open-heart surgeries and founded a hospital with interracial staff all while being African-american? Daniel Hale Williams did all of this in a time of extreme racism. Daniel has also done other fantastic things in his lifetime. Daniel Hale Williams III was born on January 18, 1856 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. His parents were Sarah Price Williams and Daniel Hale Williams II. He lived with his parents and several of his siblings. When his father died he was sent to live in Baltimore, Pennsylvania where he became a shoemaker’s apprentice. Eventually he moved to Illinois due to the fact he did not like being a shoemaker. He took up barbering, like his father, but ultimately decided to pursue his education. He was apprenticed to Dr. Henry Palmer…show more content… Also he became the first African-American physician to work for the cities street railway system. Williams was also called Dr. Dan by patients. He adopted sterilization procedures for his office informed by the recent findings on germ transmission and prevention from Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister. Due to the times racism African-American citizens were barred from being admitted to hospitals and black doctors were refused staff positions. Strongly believing this needed changing Williams opened Provident Hospital and Training school for nurses in May 1891. This was the nation's first hospital with a nursing and intern program that had interracial staff. Still making history in 1893 when he operated on James Cornish, a man with severe stab wounds to his chest. Even without blood transfusion or modern surgery procedures, Williams successfully sutured Cornish’s pericardium, thus performing open heart surgery. In 1894, Williams moved to Washington, D.C., where he was appointed the chief surgeon of the Freedmen’s Hospital, which provided care for formerly enslaved African
