Daniel Brainard (May 15, 1812 – October 10, 1866) was a Chicago-based surgeon and founder of

Rush Medical College Rush Medical College is the medical school of Rush University, located in the Illinois Medical District, about 3 km (2 miles) west of the Loop in Chicago. Offering a full-time Doctor of Medicine program, the school was chartered in 1837, and ...

Personal life

Brainard came to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1836, at the age of 24, and immediately set up a medical practice, soon after which he applied to the Illinois state legislature for a charter for what was to become

. The charter was granted on March 2, 1837, two days before the city of Chicago was incorporated. He chose the name for the school after

Benjamin Rush Benjamin Rush (April 19, 1813) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, ...

, the only physician with medical training to sign the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...

Career

Brainard made his reputation in Chicago by successfully amputating at the hip joint the leg of an injured canal worker, the first such operation in the United States. His other accomplishments include being the city’s first surgeon, editor of the ''Illinois Medical and Surgical Journal'', proponent of the first general hospital for the city and then the first county hospital. He was also an organizer for the county and state medical societies. Brainard was the president and professor of surgery at Rush from its founding until his death at age 54 of

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

, a subject he had lectured on a few hours before he himself succumbed to the disease. Brainard ran for mayor of Chicago in 1858. By 1897, Rush Medical College was the largest medical school in America.

is now part of

Rush University Rush University is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. The university, founded in 1972, is the academic arm of Rush University Medical Center. Rush University comprises: * Rush Medical College * Rush University College of Nursing ...

and its affiliated medical center

Rush University Medical Center Rush University Medical Center (Rush) is an academic medical center in the Illinois Medical District neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship hospital for the Rush University System for Health, which includes Rush Oak Park Hospital an ...

, formerly Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center.

Personal life

Career

References

See also