On this day in Alabama history: Luther Leonidas Hill performed first successful surgical heart repair in U.S.
Pioneering physician and Montgomery native Luther Leonidas Hill Jr. (1862-1946) in 1902 performed the first successful surgical repair of a wounded heart by an American. His son, Lister Hill, became a celebrated U.S. senator. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences)
September 15, 1902
Physician Luther Leonidas Hill successfully repaired the stabbed heart of 13-year-old African-American Henry Myrick in Montgomery. The 45-minute procedure was the first successful surgical repair of a wounded heart by an American physician. Regarded as an authority on injured hearts after publishing the article “Wounds of the Heart” in 1900, Hill’s procedure caused a sensation in medical journals and the media. Despite his success, heart surgery did not advance significantly in the U.S. or Europe for many decades. Hill was inducted into the Alabama Health Care Hall of Fame in 2001.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
Young doctor Luther Leonidas Hill, seated far right, poses with a group of medical students in Birmingham in 1890. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of University of Alabama at Birmingham Archives)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
