Black History Month Spotlight: Dr. Daniel Hale Williams Performed First Successful Heart Surgery

As we continue our safety series during Black History Month spotlighting African Americans who played pivotal roles in helping keep Americans safe through their inventions and/or cutting-edge innovations, we must focus our attention this week on Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the first successful heart surgery in the United States. It is impossible to count the thousands of lives his pioneering surgical innovation has saved throughout the years. I believe it is important for us to take time and examine his life before and after his successful heart surgery. This safety article will briefly highlight this incredible man’s journey. He was born on January 18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania to Daniel Williams Jr. and Sarah Price. He was the fifth of the six children born to the Williams family. The Williams family’s great grandfather was listed in the 1790 U.S. census for Philadelphia City as “other free,” which was a designation that referred to Black Americans. His family moved to Annapolis, Maryland and when Williams was nine his father died of tuberculosis. Understanding the magnitude of rearing six children, his mother sent some of her children to live with relatives. Williams became an apprentice to a shoemaker in Baltimore,...