25 Facts About Ephraim McDowell

Ephraim McDowell was an American physician and pioneer surgeon.

Ephraim McDowell's father was a veteran of the French and Indian War and a colonel during the American Revolution.

In 1784 Samuel Ephraim McDowell was appointed land commissioner and moved his family to Danville, Kentucky.

Ephraim McDowell received his early education at the classical seminary of Worley and James, then spent three years as a medical student under Dr Alexander Humphreys in Staunton, Virginia.

Ephraim McDowell attended lectures in medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, from 1793 to 1794 and studied privately with John Bell.

In 1795, Ephraim McDowell returned from Scotland, settled in Danville, Kentucky, and began his practice as a surgeon.

Ephraim McDowell perfected the modern surgical technique of lithotomy, for removal of stones obstructing the urinary bladder.

On December 13,1809, Ephraim McDowell was called to see Jane Todd Crawford in Green County, Kentucky, 60 miles from Danville.

Ephraim McDowell's physicians thought that Mrs Crawford was beyond term pregnant.

Ephraim McDowell then described her condition and that an operation for cure had never been performed.

Ephraim McDowell said that the best surgeons in the world thought it impossible.

Ephraim McDowell told her he would remove the tumor if she would travel to his home in Danville.

Ephraim McDowell agreed and rode the 60 miles on horseback.

Ephraim McDowell determined that it would be difficult to remove completely, so he tied a ligature around the fallopian tube near the uterus and cut open the tumor.

Ephraim McDowell described the tumor as the ovarium and fimbrious part of the fallopian tube very much enlarged.

Ephraim McDowell returned to her home in Green County 25 days after the operation and lived another 32 years.

Ephraim McDowell did not publish a description of his procedure until 1817, after he had performed two more such operations.

From 1809 and 1818, Ephraim McDowell wrote about four separate ovariotomies following Crawford's.

In 1802, Ephraim McDowell married Sarah Shelby, daughter of war hero and two-time Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby.

Ephraim McDowell was a founder, original corporator, and member of the primary board of trustees of Centre College in Danville.

Ephraim McDowell became a member of the Philadelphia Medical Society in 1817.

Ephraim McDowell was the great-great-grandfather of General John Campbell Greenway, whose statue was placed in the National Statuary Hall Collection by the state of Arizona in 1930.

Ephraim McDowell was cousin to woman's suffrage leader Madeline McDowell Breckinridge.

Ephraim McDowell was a Presbyterian but became an Episcopalian and founded Trinity Episcopal Church in Danville, Kentucky, having donated the land for its first building.

In June 1830, Ephraim McDowell was stricken with an acute attack of violent pain, nausea, and fever.