William halstead biography
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Angels and Demons: The peculiar and haunted genius of Dr. Halsted
ByKatie Pearce
/PublishedFall 2022In the logbooks of the Butler Hospital for the Insane, there appears in May 1886 the feeble signature of a "William Stewart." Like most patients at the Rhode Island hospital, the 33-year-old did not enter of his own volition but at the insistence of loved ones who witnessed his dark unraveling.
William Stewart Halsted—his full name, which he was presumably too ashamed to sign—may have been the most promising surgeon in America at that time. For six years, rotating among six different hospitals in New York City and teaching sought-after classes at night, he had been transforming the field from one of rushed butchery into a meticulous, sterilized art. A refined and intellectual young man, often seen sporting a mustache and top hat, Halsted indulged in a vibrant social life and possessed an infinite and somewhat untamed curiosity.
With that investigative
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From the pages of medical history comes the inspiring life story of Dr. William Stewart Halsted, who unwittingly became a drug addict, overcame the habit and went on to perform miracles of surgery. His life was dedicated to tracking down the source of infection, and he was the first doctor in America to practice aseptic surgery. In the late nineteenth century, his insistence on scrupulous cleanliness revolutionized operating techniques and saved countless lives.
Halsted was born in Irvington, New York, and educated at Yale where he captained the football team. In his junior year he chanced to see a stranger soothe a hurt dog and was so moved and haunted by the incident, he decided to become a surgeon. He studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and at Bellevue Hospital where he saw the terrifying consequences of infection. The most skillful surgeons were helpless against it, and Halsted wondered if dirt could be its source. Testing his theory during operations, he purified
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William Stewart Halsted
American surgeon (1852–1922)
William Stewart Halsted, M.D. (September 23, 1852 – September 7, 1922) was an American surgeon who emphasized strict aseptic technique during surgical procedures, was an early mästare of newly discovered anesthetics, and introduced several new operations, including the radical mastectomy for breast cancer. Along with William Osler (Professor of Medicine), Howard Atwood Kelly (Professor of Gynecology) and William H. Welch (Professor of Pathology), Halsted was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.[1][2] His operating room at Johns Hopkins Hospital is in Ward G, and was described as a small room where medical discoveries and miracles took place.[3] According to an intern who once worked in Halsted's operating room, Halsted had unique techniques, operated on the patients with great confidence and often had perfect results which astonished the interns.[3]