Surgery & Psalms

Jane Todd Crawford, 47, mother of five, was sure that she was pregnant again. But though her body swelled, she felt no quickening within her. Something was wrong. Surgeon Ephraim McDowell diagnosed Jane Crawford's trouble: no pregnancy, but a tumor. Only surgery might save her. McDowell had never heard of success in abdominal surgery of such severity, to remove a tumor of this size. The year was 1809.

Dr. McDowell explained the risks. Jane Crawford and her farmer husband Thomas were willing. So she set out on horseback, the tumor resting on the saddle pommel, from Greensburg to Danville, Ky. The 60-mile journey lasted "a few days"--Dr. McDowell does not record just how many. Then, according to his own report in the Eclectic Repertory and Analytical Review:

"Having placed her on a table of the ordinary height, on her back, and removed all her dressing which might in any way impede the operation, I made an incision . . . nine inches in length . . . extending into the cavity of the abdomen . . . The tumor then appeared full in view, but was so large that we could not take it away entire . . . We cut open the tumor [and] took out fifteen pounds of a dirty, gelatinous substance. After which we cut through the Fallopian tube, and extracted the sack, which weighed seven pounds and a half . . . The operation was completed in about 25 minutes. We then turned her upon her left side, so as to permit the blood to escape; after which we closed the external opening. In five days I visited her, and much to my astonishment found her engaged in making up her bed . . . and in 25 days she returned home in good health."

Virginia-born, Scottish-educated Ephraim McDowell (1771-1830), practicing in the tiny (pop. 1,000) frontier town, had dared what the most eminent surgeons in the capitals of Europe would not have attempted. Patient Crawford, who had been given only opium pills and remained conscious, reciting psalms, during the operation, outlived her surgeon by ten years--until the dawn of the anesthetic era. McDowell's colleagues at first scoffed at what they dismissed as a backwoodsman's tall tale. Not until 1827 did the University of Maryland recognize him. with an honorary degree.

This week Danville (pop. now 10,000) celebrated the 150th anniversary of Pioneer Surgeon McDowell's pioneering operation. Appropriately--for McDowell had once served as its postmaster--Danville's post office was the first to sell a new 4-c- commemorative stamp.

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