Crawford Williamson Long

Surgeries have become a routine process.Around fifteen million surgeries are performed a year. They put you under anesthesia, they operate, and you wake up with a little discomfort. However, there was a time where surgeries would happen while the patient was awake and conscious. They tried to keep the pain to a minimum with alcohol and hypnosis, but didn 't drastically change. This all changed on March 30, 1842 when Crawford Long operated on James Venable after he had inhaled sulfuric-ether. James woke up with minimal pain and no recollection of what had happened. On that day Crawford Long single handedly change the course of medicine, but what led up to that pivotal point of his life?

In 1815, Crawford Williamson Long was born to James and Elizabeth in Danielsville, Georgia,and named after William H.

On March 30, 1842 he successfully removed a tumor from James Venable under sulfuric-ether. James woke up in a little discomfort, and no memory of the surgery. However, he did not publish his findings in writing. He also was a surgeon during the Civil War to both sides in Athens, Georgia. In 1846, Dr. William Morton was wrongly credited of being the first person to have used sulfuric-ether as a sedative for surgery. A few minutes after delivering a child, Long died of a stroke in Athens, Georgia. Sadly, one year after he died he was officially declared the discoverer of anesthesia by the National Eclectic Medical Association.

There are numerous memorials, statues, and paintings honoring Dr. Crawford Long, and there is The Crawford Long museum in Jefferson, Georgia. Also, in 1931, he had a hospital named after him called Emory Crawford Long Hospital, which later was renamed Emory University Hospital Midtown in 2009. Doctors’ Day is celebrated on March 30th every year in honor of the first operation with sulfuric-ether performed by Crawford