Brigham and Women's Hospital - History

History

Brigham and Women's represents the 1980 merger of three Harvard-affiliated Boston hospitals:

• Peter Bent Brigham Hospital established in 1913
• Robert Breck Brigham Hospital established in 1914
• Boston Hospital for Women established in 1966 as a merger of:

• Boston Lying-In Hospital established in 1832 as one of America’s first maternity hospitals
• Free Hospital for Women established in 1875

Some milestones in the history of BWH and its predecessor institutions include the following:

• 1847 Anesthesia is administered for the first time in childbirth (Boston Lying-In Hospital)
• 1877 Boston restaurateur and investor Peter Bent Brigham dies, leaving a $5.3 million bequest to build a hospital 25 years after his death.
• 1913 Harvey Cushing is named the surgeon-in-chief at the newly opened Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and remains in this position for two decades; He made several key discoveries relating to neurosurgery and endocrinology.
• In 1923 Dr. Elliot Cutler of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital performed the world’s first successful heart valve surgery. The patient was a 12-year-old girl with rheumatic mitral stenosis who underwent mitral valve repair.
• 1926 Drs. William P. Murphy, George Whipple and George Minot discover that liver extracts cure pernicious anemia, previously a rapidly fatal illness. In 1934, they share the Nobel Prize for this work (Peter Bent Brigham Hospital).
• 1931 Harvey Cushing performs his 2,000th brain tumor operation.
• 1932 Heart surgeon Elliot Cutler succeeds Harvey Cushing as chief of surgery at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
• Soma Weiss was named the physician-in-chief of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1939. He is noted for his discovery of esophageal lacerations with alcoholics, which was later termed as Mallory-Weiss syndrome.
• 1947 An early form of a kidney dialysis machine is developed at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
• 1948 Francis Moore succeeds Elliot Cutler as chief of surgery at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. Moore was the author of the textbook The Metabolic Response to Surgery and a pioneer in studying metabolic problems related to surgery.
• 1948 Carol Walter pioneers the use of plastic bags in place of breakable glass bottles for blood bank storage.
• 1949 Cortisone, a steroid treatment administered for the first time to patients with rheumatoid arthritis (Robert Breck Brigham Hospital)
• 1949 Dr. Carl Walter invents and perfects a way to collect, store and transfuse blood — developing the world’s first blood bank (Peter Bent Brigham Hospital).
• 1954 The first successful human organ transplant, a kidney transplanted from one identical twin to another, was accomplished at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. Joseph Murray, MD, received the Nobel Prize in 1990 for this work and the subsequent development of immunosuppressive drugs. J. Hartwell Harrison, M.D. partnered in the premier transplant.
• 1962 DC cardioversion is used for the first time to restore normal rhythm to a heart in atrial fibrillation (Peter Bent Brigham Hospital).
• 1976 Vascular surgeon John Mannick succeeds Francis Moore as chief of surgery at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
• 1979 Belmont Report issued by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, chaired by Kenneth John Ryan, M.D., Chief of Staff, Boston Hospital for Women.
• 1980 The three hospitals merge to form Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
• 1984 The first heart transplant in New England is performed at BWH.
• 1989 Through the Physicians Heart Study is the first to prove aspirin could prevent a first heart attack (BWH).
• 1990 BWH surgeon Joseph Murray receives the Nobel Prize.
• 1994 BWH unveils the world's first Intra-Operative Magnetic Resonance Imaging System for neurosurgery, specifically brain tumor craniotomy.
• 1994 Michael Zinner succeeds John Mannick as chief of surgery at BWH.
• 2000 The hospital performs the world's first quadruple transplant, harvesting four organs from a single donor — a kidney, two lungs and a heart — and transplanting them to four patients.
• 2004 BWH becomes the first hospital to implement a complete Electronic Medication Administration System, electronically linking physicians writing prescriptions, pharmacists reviewing orders, and nurses administering them.
• 2006 BWH becomes the first hospital in New England to perform a robotic-assisted radical hysterectomy. In 2007, New England's first robotic-assisted laparoscopic tubal sterilization reversal is performed at BWH.
• 2009 On April 9, 2009, a BWH surgical team, led by MUDr. Bohdan Pomahač, performed the first partial face transplant in New England, the second in the United States, and the seventh in the world.
• 2011 On March 22, a surgical team, led by MUDr. Bohdan Pomahač, performed the first full face transplant in the United States, and third in the world.