By Sam Terry, Glasgow
Danville was the scene of a Christmas miracle that changed the world of medicine, particularly for women. On Dec. 25, 1809, Dr. Ephraim McDowell (1771-1830) removed a 22.5-pound cystic ovarian tumor from Jane Todd Crawford, the world first ovariotomy and successful abdominal surgery.
Physicians in Green County assumed that 45-year-old Crawford was pregnant, as her abdomen had become progressively larger. Well past what should have been her due date, they sought advice from McDowell, who had studied medicine under Alexander Humphreys in Virginia and had attended lectures at the University of Edinburgh School of Medicine in Scotland.
McDowell rode on horseback to Crawford’s home on Motley’s Glen on Caney Fork Creek, about 9 miles southeast of Greensburg. After examining Crawford on Dec. 13, he said that he believed the unusual swelling in her abdomen to be an ovarian cyst.
McDowell advised Crawford, “If you think you are prepared to die, I will take the lump from you…”
Recording his diagnosis, McDowell wrote: “Having never seen so large a substance extracted, nor heard of an attempt, or success attending any operation, such as this required, I gave to the unhappy woman information of her dangerous situation. She appeared willing to undergo an experiment, which I promised to perform if she came to Danville [the town where I live], a distance of 60 miles from her place of residence.”
Crawford left her family and rode horseback to McDowell’s home. There is no record of anyone accompanying her or how long the journey took. Two days after turning 46, Crawford submitted herself to McDowell’s experiment, hopeful that his bold idea of surgery would save her life.
Without benefit of anesthesia, Crawford sang hymns and cited various Psalms as she was held still by attendants while McDowell extracted the tumor in a surgery lasting 25 minutes. Crude, experimental and without antiseptics, the surgery was a success.
“Jane’s recovery was rapid,” McDowell wrote. “Within five days, she was making up her own bed, and in 25 days, she returned home as she came, in good health.”
Crawford lived another 32 years, dying at 78.
Regarding his role in the surgery, McDowell wrote, “How is it that I have been so peculiarly fortunate with my patients of this description? I know not; for all of the information I can obtain, there has not one individual survived who has been operated on, elsewhere, for diseased ovaria. I can only say that the blessing of God has rested on my efforts.”
Having performed the world’s first successful abdominal operation, McDowell’s reputation as a surgeon increased, and he performed 13 other ovariotomies, although eight of those patients died. He also operated on 32 other patients to remove bladder stones. One of those patients was President James K. Polk.
The McDowell House Museum, Apothecary & Gardens in Danville, designated as a National Historic Landmark, has been preserved by the Kentucky Medical Association. In 1929, Isaac Bernheim commissioned sculptor Charles Henry Niehaus to create two identical statues of McDowell—one for the United States Capitol National Statuary Hall and the other for the rotunda of the Kentucky Capitol. The statue depicts McDowell standing in front of a table on which sits a bowl holding the tumor removed from Jane Todd Crawford.
For more Kentucky history stories, visit “Sam Terry’s Kentucky” page on Facebook.