Barney Brooks (December 17, 1884 – March 30, 1952) was an American

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

. He was a medical educator, particularly in surgical residency training, and was known for his research in

orthopedics Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

, intestinal obstruction, and

vascular surgery Vascular surgery is a surgical subspecialty in which diseases of the vascular system, or arteries, veins and lymphatic circulation, are managed by medical therapy, minimally-invasive catheter procedures and surgical reconstruction. The specialty ...

. He was appointed first Professor and Chief of Surgery at the

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

School of Medicine A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, MB ...

in 1925 where he served until his death in 1952 from a

hemorrhagic stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

Training and professional career

Barney Brooks was born in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

in 1884, received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 1905, and graduated from

Johns Hopkins Medical School The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...

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 under

William Halsted William Stewart Halsted, M.D. (September 23, 1852 – September 7, 1922) was an American surgeon who emphasized strict aseptic technique during surgical procedures, was an early champion of newly discovered anesthetics, and introduced several ...

but was not offered an appointment as surgical resident, so he completed his residency at The Barnes Hospital in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, after which he joined the surgical staff at

Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine has 1,260 students, 604 of which are pursuing a medical degree with or ...

. In 1925 Brooks was appointed Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’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. At both at Washington University and Vanderbilt, Brooks established productive laboratories in

surgical pathology Surgical pathology is the most significant and time-consuming area of practice for most anatomical pathologists. Surgical pathology involves gross and microscopic examination of surgical specimens, as well as biopsies submitted by surgeons and ...

. At Vanderbilt, Brooks introduced an ''Amphitheater Clinic'', in which medical students were called down to answer questions on the case being presented, an intense and unforgettable experience for the students.

Leisure and Health

Brooks was an avid golfer who disregarded the limitations of inclement weather. When it was too dark to

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, he was known to play

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

. He suffered from

hypertension Hypertension (HTN or HT), also known as high blood pressure (HBP), is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms. Long-term high bl ...

for many years resulting in complications of

congestive heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

beginning in 1949, a left-sided

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

resulting in right

hemiplegia Hemiparesis, or unilateral paresis, is weakness of one entire side of the body ('' hemi-'' means "half"). Hemiplegia is, in its most severe form, complete paralysis of half of the body. Hemiparesis and hemiplegia can be caused by different medic ...

in 1951, and finally a fatal right-sided

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

in 1952.

Quotes

“...Without doubt the only place for the effective teaching of surgery is on the wards, and good teaching can be done 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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Barney 1884 births 1952 deaths American surgeons Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumni University of Texas alumni 20th-century surgeons