- Barney Brooks
Barney Brooks (
December 17 ,1884 –March 30 ,1952 ), a 20th centuryU.S. physician andsurgeon , was an influential medical educator, particularly in surgical residency training, and was known for his research inorthopedics , intestinal obstruction, andvascular surgery . He was appointed first Professor and Chief of Surgery at theVanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1925 where he served until his death in 1952 from ahemorrhagic stroke .Training
Barney Brooks was born in
Texas in 1884, received his B.S. from the University of Texas in 1905, and graduated fromJohns Hopkins Medical School in 1911. While at Hopkins, he worked for two years as a high school science teacher to supplement the cost. He did his internship in surgery underWilliam Halsted but was not offered an appointment as surgical resident, so he completed his residency atThe Barnes Hospital inSt. Louis, Missouri , after which he joined the surgical staff atWashington University School of Medicine . In 1925 Brooks was appointedVanderbilt University Hospital 's first Professor and Chief of Surgery, in part due to a strong recommendation from Halsted, despite the fact that Halsted had denied him a residency position years earlier. Brooks established productive laboratories insurgical pathology both at Washington University and at Vanderbilt.Leisure and Health
Brooks was an avid golfer who disregarded the limitations of inclement weather. When it was too dark to
golf , he was known to play bridge. He suffered fromhypertension for many years resulting in complications ofcongestive heart failure beginning in 1949, a left-sidedstroke resulting in righthemiplegia in 1951, and finally a fatal right-sidedcerebral hemorrhage in 1952.Quotations
“ . . . Without doubt the only place for the effective teaching of surgery is on the wards, and good teaching can bedone only if the patients are receiving as nearly as possible perfect professional services.” - September 18, 1935, in a letter to Dr. C. W. Flynn
External links
*http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/hc/biopages/bbrooks.html
References
*Green Byron E. "Dr. Barney Brooks," American Journal of Surgery, Vol. 98: pp. 706-712, November 1959.
*Daniel, Jr., Rollin A. "Barney Brooks," Southern Surgical Association Transactions, Vol. 63, pp. 415-416, 1951.
*Merrill WH, "What's Past is Prologue," Ann Thorac Surg 1999;68:2366-75
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