Jane Crawford: "Her Courage Brought Fame To McDowell"
“His name is familiar to physicians everywhere; however, his patient who risked her life and endured the agony of an operation without anesthesia is known to few people. She has received some recognition but has not been accorded the prominent place in history that her courage and her contribution deserve.”
~ Presidential Address: The Woman in the Case
Jane Todd Crawford, 1763-1842
ROBERT S. SPARKMAN, M.D.
~ Presidential Address: The Woman in the Case
Jane Todd Crawford, 1763-1842
ROBERT S. SPARKMAN, M.D.
Today many efforts are being made to remember Mrs. Crawford's unique contribution to womanhood. Several governors of Kentucky have proclaimed "Jane Crawford Day". Numerous historical markers and the "Jane Crawford Room" in the Southern Medical Association headquarters memorialize her.
“[The] only relief you can hope for is an operation that will remove the tumor. But it is only right for me to tell you that I have never removed such a tumor. Nor do I know of any doctor who has.” ~ Ephraim McDowell as quoted by Edward Podolsky in Ephraim McDowell, Pioneer Southern Surgeon. |
“All honor to the man who had the courage and skill to do that which no man had ever dared to do before! All honor, too, to the heroic woman who, with death literally staring her in the face, was the first to submit calmly and resignedly to what certainly was at the time a surgical experiment. To her, too, let a monument be erected, not by the Kentucky State Medical Society or by the citizens of Kentucky, but by suffering women who, with her example before them, have been the recipients of the inestimable boom of ovariotomy, with a new lease on their lives and with immunity from the subsequent discomfort and distress. I know of no greater example in all history of heroism than that displayed by this noble woman in submitting to an untried operation.”
~ Mrs. Arthur Thomas McCormack Our Pioneer Heroine of Surgery: Mrs. Jane Todd Crawford
~ Mrs. Arthur Thomas McCormack Our Pioneer Heroine of Surgery: Mrs. Jane Todd Crawford
|
“Could Dr. McDowell speak to us through the 123 years that have elapsed since their glorious rendezvous with death, I am confident that he would bid us accord to Jane Todd Crawford an equal share in the great achievement. It was not alone that either he or she accomplished that great purpose. It was together, courageously, trustfully, each dependent on the other, and each aware of that dependence, that these two gallant pioneers blazed the trail through the age-old wilderness of ignorance to a triumphant victory over needless suffering and untimely death. There by they builded (sic) the foundation of sound abdominal surgery, our safeguard, protecting life and health for a world of men, women, and children, including you and me. ”
~ Mrs. Arthur Thomas McDormack Our Pioneer Heroine of Surgery -- Mrs. Jane Todd Crawford |
Hover over the slideshow below to reveal pause button.