History Commons^™

Dr. John H. Gibbon, Jr. And Jefferson's Heart-Lung Machine: Commemoration Of The World's First Successful Bypass Surgery, F. Michael Angelo

Posters: Jefferson History

On May 6, 1953 at Jefferson Medical College Hospital, Dr. John Heysham Gibbon, Jr., his staff, and with the help of his latest-designed heart-lung machine, “Model II,” closed a very serious septal defect between the upper chambers of the heart of eighteen-year-old Cecelia Bavolek. This was the first successful intercardiac surgery of its kind performed on a human patient. Ms. Bavolek was connected to the device for three-quarters of an hour and for 26 crucial minutes, the patient totally depended upon the machine’s artificial cardiac and respiratory functions. “Jack” Gibbon did not follow this epoch-making event by holding an international …

African American Graduates Of Jefferson Medical College: The First Hundred Years, F. Michael Angelo

Posters: Jefferson History

Beginnings…

The story of early African American physicians begins in 18th century Philadelphia with James Derham who is recognized as the first black allopathic (regular, non-sectarian) medical doctor. The first medical school in the U.S. to admit an African American was Rush Medical College in Chicago that awarded, in 1847, David J. Peck his degree. Dr. Peck came to the “Quaker City” to set up his practice the same year that the A.M.A. was formed, also here in Philadelphia. In 1877, Jefferson doctors protested the seating of the delegates from Howard University, the nation’s most important black medical school, in …

United States Medicine, Women And Jefferson Medical College, F. Michael Angelo

Posters: Jefferson History

Timeline of women at Jefferson Medical College.

Latin Heritage Month. Carlos Juan Finlay: Outrageous, Courageous And Correct, Dorothy E. Berenbrok

Posters: Jefferson History

In 1855, a modest Cuban physician named Carlos Juan Finlay graduated from Jefferson Medical College. He was among JMC’s first dozen Hispanic graduates, initially signing the registrar’s log as “Charles”. He left Philadelphia at the age of 22 to begin private practice. Preceptor and close friend S. Weir Mitchell, among others, urged Finlay to work among the burgeoning Spanishspeaking population in New York City, but he returned to Cuba and set up practice in Matanzas, a town near Havana. He took a binocular microscope with him, similar to one used byMitchell, which would serve him well for many years.

During …