1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:06,760 Speaker 1: The open heart miracle they don't teach. I welcome back 2 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:10,400 Speaker 1: no at alls to another episode of the most anticipated 3 00:00:10,440 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: podcast on the Block Effect podcast network, especially in February, 4 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:20,160 Speaker 1: entitled I didn't know Maybe you didn't either. I'm your 5 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,560 Speaker 1: host b Dot. I was a felon at sixteen years old, 6 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 1: had no direction, but my HBCU saved my life. Thank 7 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:32,200 Speaker 1: you Winston Salem State University. I love you with all 8 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:35,400 Speaker 1: my heart. And to kick off this episode, I'll give 9 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:38,320 Speaker 1: you three of the most useless facts you'll never need 10 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: not a day in life about hearts. Your first useless fact, 11 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:47,639 Speaker 1: open heart surgery was considered impossible well into the twentieth century, 12 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:52,160 Speaker 1: and the twentieth century is the nineteen hundreds. Your second 13 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:56,440 Speaker 1: useless facts. Doctors believed that stopping the human heart meant 14 00:00:56,600 --> 00:01:03,560 Speaker 1: guaranteed death. The third useless fact, the breakthrough that changed everything, 15 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:07,760 Speaker 1: came from a black surgeon whose name rarely gets taught 16 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:10,840 Speaker 1: in medical schools. Would you like to meet them? I 17 00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:19,399 Speaker 1: didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. 18 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. Open 19 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 1: heart surgery today it sounds routine, still serious, but possible. 20 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: Millions of people are alive today because surgeons can safely 21 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: operate on a heart. Your uncle with the bypass alive, 22 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 1: your me mo with the valve replacement. She will hear 23 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 1: for Christmas, that baby that were born with a heart defect, 24 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:46,200 Speaker 1: who now running track. Even when my mama had congestive 25 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:48,240 Speaker 1: heart failure and they were putting all them tubes and 26 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 1: stuff in there and making sure that blood pumped to 27 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:53,440 Speaker 1: it effectively. But for a long time, doctor said it 28 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:56,760 Speaker 1: couldn't be done. The heart was off limits, too risky, 29 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 1: too sacred, too final. Touch the heart, you've touched death. 30 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:05,920 Speaker 1: That was the belief until doctor Daniel Hell Williams changed 31 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 1: everything eighteen ninety three. Doctor Williams one of the first 32 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:12,720 Speaker 1: black surgeons in America. He performed one of the world's 33 00:02:12,760 --> 00:02:16,359 Speaker 1: first successful open heart surgeries. Did you hear that date? 34 00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: Eighteen ninety three, Before antibiotics, before blood banks, before heart 35 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: lung machines, before modern anesthesia, before most hospitals would even 36 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: let a black doctor walk through the front door. A 37 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: man named James Cornish got stabbed in the chest. The 38 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,040 Speaker 1: knife went deep. There's a sack around your heart. It's 39 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:40,240 Speaker 1: called the pericardium. That was torn. They just knew bro 40 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 1: were gonna die. Everybody in that room knew BRO about 41 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 1: to check out. Everybody except Daniel hell Williams. Man. Daniel 42 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: opened that man's chest. He looked at what no surgeon 43 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:52,760 Speaker 1: was supposed to look at, and he saw the damage. 44 00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:55,920 Speaker 1: He sewed up the actual lining of that man's heart 45 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 1: and then closed it. And then James Cornish woke up 46 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,960 Speaker 1: for a few minutes, not for a few hours. That 47 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,720 Speaker 1: man lived for decades after that surgery. That moment shattered 48 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:12,760 Speaker 1: medical belief. Open heart surgery went from impossible to unavoidable. 49 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:15,080 Speaker 1: So why are you, today, years old, just hearing doctor 50 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: William's name. Why we don't hear his name like we 51 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:21,520 Speaker 1: hear other medical pioneers. But here's the uncomfortable truth. Medical 52 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: textbooks often frame heart surgery as a gradual evolution, as 53 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 1: if the breakthrough just happened. Who did it? Nobody knows, 54 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:32,440 Speaker 1: it just evolved. They skipped the part where a black 55 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:35,440 Speaker 1: surgeon took a risk when the rules said don't do that. 56 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,680 Speaker 1: It's like saying the light bulb gradually evolved without mentioning Edison, 57 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: except they always mentioned Edison. And here's what makes it 58 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: even more remarkable. Doctor Williams did this while one hospitals 59 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: were segregated, two black doctors were barred from medical societies, 60 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 1: three medical schools barely admitted US, and four most white 61 00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:59,400 Speaker 1: hospitals wouldn't even let black patients through the door. So 62 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:03,160 Speaker 1: what did he do? Bruh built his own hospital, Provident 63 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:08,160 Speaker 1: Hospital in Chicago in eighteen ninety one, the first interracial 64 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:11,800 Speaker 1: hospital in America. He trained his own staff, he created 65 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:15,200 Speaker 1: his own standards, He built his own institution. Does that 66 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:19,320 Speaker 1: sound familiar? It should, because that's the Cardigi Woodson playbook Baby, 67 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:22,640 Speaker 1: before Woodson even wrote it. If they won't let you in, 68 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:26,799 Speaker 1: you build your own damn door. Cardi G. Woodson understood 69 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:30,080 Speaker 1: this a century ago. If we don't preserve our breakthroughs, 70 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: somebody else will rewrite them. Every heart surgery performed today 71 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 1: traces back to a man who wasn't even supposed to 72 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:41,400 Speaker 1: be in the room. And I didn't know. Maybe you 73 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 1: didn't either. I