New York and Europe
Sims moved to New York in 1853 because of his health and determined to focus on diseases of women. In 1855 he founded the Woman's Hospital, first hospital for women in America. It was here that he performed operations on indigent women, often in a theatre so that others could view it. Mary Smith suffered 30 such operations between 1856 and 1859 at this hospital. In 1862, during the American Civil War, he moved to Europe, and worked primarily in London and Paris, and from 1863 to 1866, served as surgeon to Empress Eugénie. Honors and medals were heaped upon him for his successful operations in many countries. The necessity of many of these surgeries have since been called into question, as several of his patients were undergoing gynecological surgeries such as clitorectomies to control hysteria or 'improper' behavior, at the requests of their husbands/fathers, who could commit them involuntarily. Under the patronage of Napoleon III, he organized the American-Anglo Ambulance Corps that treated wounded soldiers from both sides at the battle of Sedan.
In 1871 Sims returned to New York, and after quarreling with the board of the Woman's Hospital over the admission of cancer patients (which he favored), went on to found a new hospital, later to evolve into the Memorial Center for Cancer and Allied Diseases, which eventually became the Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center.
In 1876–77, he served as president of the American Medical Association.
He was planning a return visit to Europe when he died of a heart attack on November 13, 1883 in New York. His bronze statue by Ferdinand Freiherr von Miller (the younger), depicting Sims in surgical wear can be found on the peripheral wall of Central Park, at Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street, opposite the New York Academy of Medicine. This is the first statue in the United States depicting a physician. Other memorials can be found on the grounds of both the South Carolina State Capitol in Columbia and in front of Alabama's capital in Montgomery.
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