In this episode of Destination Freedom, we delve into the dramatic and inspiring story of pioneering heart surgeons, Dr. Ulysses Grant Daley and Dr. Daniel Williams. The narrative takes us through the challenges and breakthroughs in the field of heart surgery, highlighting the racial barriers faced by African American doctors in the early 20th century. Through a gripping dramatization, we witness the life-saving operation on George Cotton, a patient whose heart was successfully sutured, marking a significant milestone in medical history.
The episode not only showcases the medical advancements of the time but also underscores the social and racial dynamics that shaped the careers of these trailblazing doctors. With a blend of historical context and personal stories, listeners are taken on a journey through the struggles and triumphs of those who dared to defy the odds, ultimately contributing to the progress of both medicine and civil rights.
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Unknown:
Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom over me. And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave and go home to my lord and be free.
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Destination, freedom. The Chicago Defender and station WMAQ bring you Destination Freedom, a new radio series dramatizing the great democratic traditions of the Negro people, interwoven in the pageant of history and a part of America's own Destination Freedom.
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Today, Destination Freedom tells the
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heart of George Cotton.
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I am the human heart. I am the spirit's rhythm. I am a hollow bag the size of your fist. I live in a cavity between two lungs. I am the timekeeper of human life, fair, impartial, equal to Turk or Tartar, Roman, Greek, Ethiope, Hebrew. I am old. I circulated blood for Cro Magnons, Neanderthals, Rhodesians. And if in men I have been the lion and the lamb, the love and the hate, if in men the good is oft interred with their bones, So let it be with my blood. So let it be in my story of the men who mastered me, who learned the laws of my veins and lobes, arteries and auricles, who timed my twisting to planet precision, who fought to heal me whenever I was ripped and split, outstretched on a table in the breast of a dying man.
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Doctor, that's my heart beating, like a drum in my ears. It's loud. So loud. Can't you hear it?
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His lips are moving, doctor David, but I can't hear him. His heart must be beating,
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but my stethoscope hardly picks up a sound.
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Oh, Doug, can't you hear it yet? Can't you?
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How long has he been here? The ambulance just brought him in. I called you right away. Reject his pulse. Restoration temperature. Pulse rapid. Threddy. 130. Respiration, 30. Temperature, 105.
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Oh, good lord. It only brought him in sooner.
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This this world goes down to
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oh, wait. I think I found where. Doctor,
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I'm trying to tell you it happened that night I got paid.
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I went out to sit on the beach to watch the sun
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rise. So many came up. What a money. I hit one, then something hit my chest,
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dipped in like a pinna. His
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heart's weak me. Nurse the needle. Adrenaline quick. Right here, doctor.
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Let it go. Let it go.
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I'll hold it a while. His heart's been hit. Only one thing we can do. There's nothing you can do.
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Nothing?
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Don't let him stir nurse. Call the emergency staff to the Operating Room. Find his blood type, get the plasma ready. His heart's split vegan badly. He'll die if he can't sew it up. We've got to operate. No.
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You can't operate on my heart.
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Not on my heart. There's one chance in a thousand. If we take it, he may live. No.
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I'll die. You don't fool me.
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I'll never see the sunrise again.
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I know it. And you hear that, doctor. I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you.
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Yes. I am the heart, and I speak to you, doctor. You scrubbing your arms while red sand rips down an hourglass, dusting your hands with powder, flexing your fingers with a rubber glove, your heart steady, Your mind, 40 away from a town in Texas, when you were 18, when your fingers rolled over the keys of a big piano.
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David, stop playing that. You hear me? Stop it. Yes, doctor Stevens. I am told you not to play that piano. My wife's dead. Let her music rest.
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Yes, doctor.
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I I didn't expect you'd come in, sir. If it's still music you want to learn, we can stop your medical lessons. Oh, no. I've given up music. I was just practicing to Put your fingers to a better use than waking up a dead woman. I'm sorry. Excuse my gruffness. I had a hard day at the hospital, and I can't get her out of my head. I'm tired. So tired.
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I knew you'd be. I finished marking the class papers for you. Would you want to look them over, sir?
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Yes. Yes. What are they?
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Right here, sir. They find examinations from your surgery students. I've checked them over. Hey, doctor.
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Mhmm. Yeah. Good. Good. You've got a fine head on you, boy, even if you are over curious. Excellent, excellent. What would the white supremacists in this town say if they knew I've got a Negro boy not even allowed to enter the medical school marking my class papers? And a boy named after that Yankee, Ulysses Grant, on top of it. Yeah. And this one is marked right.
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Here's an odd one, doctor.
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Yes?
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What's odd about it? Well, I I didn't know how to mark it. This student thinks it's possible to sew up the human heart when the fibers are cut. He thinks you can take the needle and Operate on the human heart? He's crazy. He drew a diagram, sir. He thinks if the pericardial sac can be reached before it I said he's crazy. It can't be done.
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If it could, wouldn't I have saved her? Didn't I try it after she stabbed herself? Didn't I try it?
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Yes, doctor. You did.
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Not just me, but doctors everywhere. In Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, all tried for years years and failed. It can't be done. Don't you see that? I I see it, sir.
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How shall I mark the paper? Zero zero.
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Just talking of it makes me hear the way her heartbeat that night. I wish to forget it. Daily, look. Sir? You've got nimble fingers and a good head. You know about all I can teach you here. You go north, beat the race quota, get into a medical school daily. We can heal the kidney, the bladder, the stomach, nigh everything in the body except the human heart. Like the poet said, the heart's so lonely, Hunter, and when it's wounded, there's not a chance in a million to heal it. Not a chance in a million.
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I don't have a chance in a million, do I, doctor? Go
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on. Tell me the truth. I'll never see the sunrise again. Well Everything's ready, doctor Daly. Doctor Shaw, doctor Hasbrock, doctor Roberts' assisting.
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Good. Let them look this way. We cut a window in the chest wall above the heart. A half circle incision this way. Every move counts. We can't afford a single slip.
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Ness, Scalper. Yes, doctor.
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Clamps. Here, doctor.
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All clamps. Yes, doctor. Spine shoe?
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Yes, doctor. Your doctor. A single slip and I stop. To you, I speak Like. With your body bent over a table under the glare of a white light, concentrated on a six inch half circle. Your mind following the meaning of the words you spoke decades back in a college hall when you took an ancient oath. Here.
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Repeat after me. I, Ulysses Grant Daley. I, Ulysses Grant Daley. Swear by Apollo position, by Aesculapius, by health, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses.
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Swear by Apollo physician, by Aesculapius, by health, by Panacea, and all the gods and goddesses. Making them my witnesses
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that I will carry out this oath and this indenture.
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Making them my witnesses that I will carry out this oath and this indenture.
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To use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing.
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To use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing.
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In whatever house I enter, I shall enter to help the sick, and I shall abstain from all intentional wrongdoing and harm.
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In whatever house He took an oath and carried it out to the ledge. And so he went out to heal the heartbeats of the world, to look into hospitals across the country, and to knock on any door to enter the house of the
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sick. Who are you?
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What do you want? I'm doctor Daly, ma'am. I'm over at the hospital. They told me your husband had an accident on the job. A sheriff hit his chin. Did they tell you that there's no hope for
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him? Did they tell you none of the doctors could do anything? They sent me over. Go back where you come from. Let my husband die in peace. Please.
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Let me see if there's a chance There's no chance.
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Now go. Please, ma'am. Come in then. Thank you. He's lying on the pallet.
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Over there. Thank you. Would you hold my bag? Let me get the stethoscope.
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There. They were right. His eyes.
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Pupils dilate. It's no use, Lieutenant. Very is use. Let me take him to the hospital. Let me try. If we get him there in time, if we can work quick, very quickly, we might What can you do that the savior can't do? I don't know, ma'am. All I know is that hundreds, thousands of men die this way. Well, there must be some way, some way of patching up their hearts. I know. I'm a young doctor, very young. But there must be a way of helping the heart to beat even when the cords are cut. I'll find that way, ma'am. I'll find that way.
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You went across the sea, learning my laws in Paris, in Rome, standing by under the white lights while I lay stretched out upon a table, watching masters try to heal me in Paris.
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Doctor.
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Men? 'Yes. In a cottage in Milan I stopped. Everywhere I stopped when I was wounded. And he went to Berlin to learn more, to work. While on a dark street in Chicago other men went to work on me. I was in George Cotton. I was walking home with my wife.'
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'George!' 'Yeah? Yeah, Mabel?' don't look now, but two men back, they're fine.' 'Ah, you're just uneasy because it's dark along
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here. Every night we come by here, it's always the same old story.
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George, don't look now, but two men George, they're coming up here. They're running this way. Look.
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Hey. You two. Hold up there. Don't run or we'll throw a bullet in your back. Put up your hand. Watch this. Hey. Hey. You take your hands off me. George, don't he's got a knife. And I got my fish to take you smart guy. George, watch out. Watch out.
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George is damned.
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Help. Shut off. Let this shut off. Fuck out her.
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He he looks like he's dead. Oh, wait. That's shocking. I almost stabbed him in the heart. You're too quick with that knife. I told you. Rifle is Puckett, and stop preaching.
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I can't hold this for you all night. Okay, Lefty. Okay.
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Oh, of all the lousy luck, $10 is all you had. You're a liar. No. Lefty. Honest. Of course, my heart. I'll cut out your heart. Come across. Honest, Lefty. You know me. I wouldn't lie to you. You're a liar. Shut up. Well, I'll be darned. Two more dead presidents stuck in my hand. What do you know about that? I know you're a liar, but we gotta get out of here. What do we do with the old lady? If she knows what's good for her, she'll keep quiet. Take my old man to the morgue. There's our real good sawbones up at the hospital there, lady. Dan Williams. He helped me. I can fool and pick up your feet.
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Okay. Go. Go. Get going.
[00:18:09] Unknown:
Oh, George. George. You're not there. Oh, George. No. I can still hear your heart. A little. Just a little. It's still beating. Or Lord, let it keep on till I can get into the hospital. Let it keep beating until I can get a doctor. Somewhere. Somewhere, there must be a doctor who can help you. There must be one somewhere.
[00:19:06] Unknown:
Or, as you say in English, I welcome you doctors to Berlin to do your research on heart surgery.
[00:19:15] Unknown:
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, professor Gerhard. Yeah. You are chief of the heart specialist here. I understand. We'd like to hear of your work. Why, I I wanted to ask you. I heard that in America,
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you have had successful heart operations.
[00:19:30] Unknown:
Successful? You hear that? I know. Sure. We've had plenty successful heart operations, professor. Only the patients died. I know. Professor, professor, I understand you German doctors are coming pretty close to finding a way to suit you the heart. Is that right? Well, I was about to say it has been done. Well, I'd sure like to study under the man who's done that. Oh, I I did not mean here. I I meant in America.
[00:19:59] Unknown:
I read that in Chicago. Chicago. I forgot. They're doctors. There is an American doctor in the next room. He's on the staff of Eichelberger Clinic. I invented I invited him over here to join us. Is that right? We'd be delighted to have him, professor. The more the merrier. Maybe he'd like to join the society. Bring him in. Sure. Hi, friend. Hi, the way, head doctors. Hi, the way, it's just the other out here. Just in here.
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Doctors, this is doctor
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doctor Daly. Good evening, gentlemen. Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt. A professor said some of my fellow countrymen wanted me to join
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them. Yeah. Yeah. Here, doctor. Here, sit here by doctor Martin.
[00:20:46] Unknown:
Just a minute, professor. I I think you brought your friend to the wrong place.
[00:20:52] Unknown:
Wrong place?
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This society is for doctors. Well, he he is a doctor. He's not a white doctor, professor. The society accepts only white doctors. Well, is not a doctor a doctor? Can't you understand?
[00:21:07] Unknown:
Well, I I never heard of such a thing. I I I'll explain it to you, professor.
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He means, insofar as Hill Society is concerned, what science proves about the equality of peoples is just make believe. He believes there is a master race, and he belongs to it. His field is for the few, not the many. He has a disease harder to cure than a heart wound. I'll join you in class here, professor, in the morning.
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This is outrageous.
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But I tell you he is one of the best doctors in Berlin. I have noticed this word. But didn't you notice his color? Color? Yeah. Yeah. I did. He is the same color as the man I was going to tell you about in America, Doctor Daniel Williams. The news just come over the wire. Two weeks ago, 07/10/1893, doctor Williams completed one of the first successful operations on the human heart. The patient was George Cotton. And her doctors, the patient lived.
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Yes. Daley, the patient lived. George Cotton got up and walked in two weeks. So you want to work as my assistant. What can I teach you you don't already know? But this, maybe someday you will have cases exactly like mine. This Cotton, they brought him in one night stabbed by thugs. His heart struggling to beat. At first, it was so faint the stethoscope couldn't pick it up. I searched, then I found it. I tell you there may be sounds more beautiful than a human heartbeat, but I've never heard them. I took him into Provident Hospital two in the morning. No time for a big staff, fancy equipment.
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I had to work fast.
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Then with these hands, I took out his heart and stitched it six times. I did it for one patient, and I did it for another. And this I learned. Now follow this closely. Yes, doctor Williams.
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This heart,
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this human heart is not just a delicate thing, but it's also tough and strong. It'll stand just so much pressure when you're going to handle it. It's the little things that you do that'll make the difference between life and death. Now you remember this when you're calling for your scalpel, sponges, sutures, clamps. Clamps. You cannot give the patient much anesthesia. He's too weak to stand at the suture. He can have his eyes open watching and waiting. Cut your window over the fourth rib and tie off the vessels. Ready. When you lift the window, you'll see the heart. Cramps.
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Here. It's like a slippery fish. Cramped. It writhes,
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twists, and struggles like it's trying to break free. Ready. Take the stitches in between the heartbeats. Got four. And if the stitches hold back the flow, you've got a chance.
[00:24:25] Unknown:
Yes, darling. But remember,
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keep in rhythm with a heartbeat. Keep the rhythm.
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Never break that rhythm. Now, it's ready. We'll lift up the window. Steady. Easy now. Easy. Doctor.
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What are you taking off me, doctor?
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It's off. The heart. Look at it writhe and twist. Doctor.
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Doctor. Keep check on his respiration.
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Transfusion ready. It's on the rack, doctor.
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I feel so so weak, doctor.
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So weak. Pressure. He's he's gasping. He's weak. Got to get on. Pray to lift the heart. Lift it out of the body. Not too much pressure. Keep in rhythm with the heartbeat.
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Doctor, everything's gone wrong.
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A little more. There. Now it's out. Now to hold it in my left hand, blood leaking out. Not much time. Nurse needle curve needle. Right here. Fine silicone. It's threaded. Ready. Alright. If the stitches hold three stitches, stop the link.
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One,
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two,
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three.
[00:26:26] Unknown:
It's still big. Too large. Let it stop. It stopped. Oh, thank heavens. But his pressure, it's gone down. His heart's hardly beating.
[00:26:51] Unknown:
Doctor. A falling, falling, falling,
[00:26:56] Unknown:
doctor. Gentlemen, quick. Gentlemen. I've got it, doctor. Locate a vein in his arm. Hurry. I'm I'm trying to, doctor, but his nerves have collapsed. I can't find it. Make a scalpel. Cut down. Make a cut down. Pick one or two. I've got it, doctor. Shoot it in. Good. Transducer's empty. Yes, doctor. And let the blood flow into him. There. It's holding. Getting more. Let it go freely. It's going in.
[00:27:26] Unknown:
The beat's picking up.
[00:27:29] Unknown:
Good. Good. Okay. System, clean the incision. Sprinkle sulfur. Take off the clamps. Fill up the vessels. We've won. You'll make it.
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I did make it. I am the human heart, a hollow bag the size of your fist. When I was wounded, these are some of the men who first healed my wounds.
[00:28:18] Unknown:
You have just heard Destination Freedom's dramatization of the story of doctor Ulysses Grant Daly and doctor Daniel Williams, among the first of the world surgeons to devise a successful method for heart sutures. Destination Freedom is Richard by written by Richard Durham and produced under the direction of Homer Heck. Doctor Bailey was played by Fred Pinkard. Others were Larry Alexander, Oscar Brown Junior, Donald Gallagher, Janice Kingslow, Kurt Kuffer, William Nicks, Tony Perish, Arthur Peterson, and Dorothy Van Zant. Greg Pascal was the singer. The special music was written by Emil Soderstrom and was played by Elwyn Owen and Bobby Christian.
This is Charles Chan inviting you to be with us again next week for another in our series of the Negro in democracy, destination freedom. This is WMAQ NBC in Chicago.
Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom over me. And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave and go home to my lord and be free.
[00:00:38] Unknown:
Destination, freedom. The Chicago Defender and station WMAQ bring you Destination Freedom, a new radio series dramatizing the great democratic traditions of the Negro people, interwoven in the pageant of history and a part of America's own Destination Freedom.
[00:01:05] Unknown:
Today, Destination Freedom tells the
[00:01:23] Unknown:
heart of George Cotton.
[00:01:27] Unknown:
I am the human heart. I am the spirit's rhythm. I am a hollow bag the size of your fist. I live in a cavity between two lungs. I am the timekeeper of human life, fair, impartial, equal to Turk or Tartar, Roman, Greek, Ethiope, Hebrew. I am old. I circulated blood for Cro Magnons, Neanderthals, Rhodesians. And if in men I have been the lion and the lamb, the love and the hate, if in men the good is oft interred with their bones, So let it be with my blood. So let it be in my story of the men who mastered me, who learned the laws of my veins and lobes, arteries and auricles, who timed my twisting to planet precision, who fought to heal me whenever I was ripped and split, outstretched on a table in the breast of a dying man.
[00:03:14] Unknown:
Doctor, that's my heart beating, like a drum in my ears. It's loud. So loud. Can't you hear it?
[00:03:27] Unknown:
His lips are moving, doctor David, but I can't hear him. His heart must be beating,
[00:03:32] Unknown:
but my stethoscope hardly picks up a sound.
[00:03:36] Unknown:
Oh, Doug, can't you hear it yet? Can't you?
[00:03:41] Unknown:
How long has he been here? The ambulance just brought him in. I called you right away. Reject his pulse. Restoration temperature. Pulse rapid. Threddy. 130. Respiration, 30. Temperature, 105.
[00:03:55] Unknown:
Oh, good lord. It only brought him in sooner.
[00:03:59] Unknown:
This this world goes down to
[00:04:05] Unknown:
oh, wait. I think I found where. Doctor,
[00:04:11] Unknown:
I'm trying to tell you it happened that night I got paid.
[00:04:17] Unknown:
I went out to sit on the beach to watch the sun
[00:04:22] Unknown:
rise. So many came up. What a money. I hit one, then something hit my chest,
[00:04:33] Unknown:
dipped in like a pinna. His
[00:04:36] Unknown:
heart's weak me. Nurse the needle. Adrenaline quick. Right here, doctor.
[00:04:41] Unknown:
Let it go. Let it go.
[00:04:49] Unknown:
I'll hold it a while. His heart's been hit. Only one thing we can do. There's nothing you can do.
[00:04:58] Unknown:
Nothing?
[00:04:59] Unknown:
Don't let him stir nurse. Call the emergency staff to the Operating Room. Find his blood type, get the plasma ready. His heart's split vegan badly. He'll die if he can't sew it up. We've got to operate. No.
[00:05:12] Unknown:
You can't operate on my heart.
[00:05:15] Unknown:
Not on my heart. There's one chance in a thousand. If we take it, he may live. No.
[00:05:21] Unknown:
I'll die. You don't fool me.
[00:05:26] Unknown:
I'll never see the sunrise again.
[00:05:29] Unknown:
I know it. And you hear that, doctor. I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you.
[00:05:41] Unknown:
Yes. I am the heart, and I speak to you, doctor. You scrubbing your arms while red sand rips down an hourglass, dusting your hands with powder, flexing your fingers with a rubber glove, your heart steady, Your mind, 40 away from a town in Texas, when you were 18, when your fingers rolled over the keys of a big piano.
[00:06:20] Unknown:
David, stop playing that. You hear me? Stop it. Yes, doctor Stevens. I am told you not to play that piano. My wife's dead. Let her music rest.
[00:06:33] Unknown:
Yes, doctor.
[00:06:34] Unknown:
I I didn't expect you'd come in, sir. If it's still music you want to learn, we can stop your medical lessons. Oh, no. I've given up music. I was just practicing to Put your fingers to a better use than waking up a dead woman. I'm sorry. Excuse my gruffness. I had a hard day at the hospital, and I can't get her out of my head. I'm tired. So tired.
[00:07:11] Unknown:
I knew you'd be. I finished marking the class papers for you. Would you want to look them over, sir?
[00:07:18] Unknown:
Yes. Yes. What are they?
[00:07:22] Unknown:
Right here, sir. They find examinations from your surgery students. I've checked them over. Hey, doctor.
[00:07:32] Unknown:
Mhmm. Yeah. Good. Good. You've got a fine head on you, boy, even if you are over curious. Excellent, excellent. What would the white supremacists in this town say if they knew I've got a Negro boy not even allowed to enter the medical school marking my class papers? And a boy named after that Yankee, Ulysses Grant, on top of it. Yeah. And this one is marked right.
[00:08:12] Unknown:
Here's an odd one, doctor.
[00:08:14] Unknown:
Yes?
[00:08:15] Unknown:
What's odd about it? Well, I I didn't know how to mark it. This student thinks it's possible to sew up the human heart when the fibers are cut. He thinks you can take the needle and Operate on the human heart? He's crazy. He drew a diagram, sir. He thinks if the pericardial sac can be reached before it I said he's crazy. It can't be done.
[00:08:38] Unknown:
If it could, wouldn't I have saved her? Didn't I try it after she stabbed herself? Didn't I try it?
[00:08:45] Unknown:
Yes, doctor. You did.
[00:08:49] Unknown:
Not just me, but doctors everywhere. In Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, all tried for years years and failed. It can't be done. Don't you see that? I I see it, sir.
[00:09:02] Unknown:
How shall I mark the paper? Zero zero.
[00:09:06] Unknown:
Just talking of it makes me hear the way her heartbeat that night. I wish to forget it. Daily, look. Sir? You've got nimble fingers and a good head. You know about all I can teach you here. You go north, beat the race quota, get into a medical school daily. We can heal the kidney, the bladder, the stomach, nigh everything in the body except the human heart. Like the poet said, the heart's so lonely, Hunter, and when it's wounded, there's not a chance in a million to heal it. Not a chance in a million.
[00:09:59] Unknown:
I don't have a chance in a million, do I, doctor? Go
[00:10:06] Unknown:
on. Tell me the truth. I'll never see the sunrise again. Well Everything's ready, doctor Daly. Doctor Shaw, doctor Hasbrock, doctor Roberts' assisting.
[00:10:18] Unknown:
Good. Let them look this way. We cut a window in the chest wall above the heart. A half circle incision this way. Every move counts. We can't afford a single slip.
[00:10:33] Unknown:
Ness, Scalper. Yes, doctor.
[00:10:40] Unknown:
Clamps. Here, doctor.
[00:10:44] Unknown:
All clamps. Yes, doctor. Spine shoe?
[00:10:50] Unknown:
Yes, doctor. Your doctor. A single slip and I stop. To you, I speak Like. With your body bent over a table under the glare of a white light, concentrated on a six inch half circle. Your mind following the meaning of the words you spoke decades back in a college hall when you took an ancient oath. Here.
[00:11:11] Unknown:
Repeat after me. I, Ulysses Grant Daley. I, Ulysses Grant Daley. Swear by Apollo position, by Aesculapius, by health, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses.
[00:11:30] Unknown:
Swear by Apollo physician, by Aesculapius, by health, by Panacea, and all the gods and goddesses. Making them my witnesses
[00:11:42] Unknown:
that I will carry out this oath and this indenture.
[00:11:47] Unknown:
Making them my witnesses that I will carry out this oath and this indenture.
[00:11:54] Unknown:
To use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing.
[00:12:05] Unknown:
To use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing.
[00:12:14] Unknown:
In whatever house I enter, I shall enter to help the sick, and I shall abstain from all intentional wrongdoing and harm.
[00:12:26] Unknown:
In whatever house He took an oath and carried it out to the ledge. And so he went out to heal the heartbeats of the world, to look into hospitals across the country, and to knock on any door to enter the house of the
[00:12:45] Unknown:
sick. Who are you?
[00:12:47] Unknown:
What do you want? I'm doctor Daly, ma'am. I'm over at the hospital. They told me your husband had an accident on the job. A sheriff hit his chin. Did they tell you that there's no hope for
[00:12:57] Unknown:
him? Did they tell you none of the doctors could do anything? They sent me over. Go back where you come from. Let my husband die in peace. Please.
[00:13:05] Unknown:
Let me see if there's a chance There's no chance.
[00:13:09] Unknown:
Now go. Please, ma'am. Come in then. Thank you. He's lying on the pallet.
[00:13:17] Unknown:
Over there. Thank you. Would you hold my bag? Let me get the stethoscope.
[00:13:25] Unknown:
There. They were right. His eyes.
[00:13:31] Unknown:
Pupils dilate. It's no use, Lieutenant. Very is use. Let me take him to the hospital. Let me try. If we get him there in time, if we can work quick, very quickly, we might What can you do that the savior can't do? I don't know, ma'am. All I know is that hundreds, thousands of men die this way. Well, there must be some way, some way of patching up their hearts. I know. I'm a young doctor, very young. But there must be a way of helping the heart to beat even when the cords are cut. I'll find that way, ma'am. I'll find that way.
[00:14:08] Unknown:
You went across the sea, learning my laws in Paris, in Rome, standing by under the white lights while I lay stretched out upon a table, watching masters try to heal me in Paris.
[00:16:15] Unknown:
Doctor.
[00:16:17] Unknown:
Men? 'Yes. In a cottage in Milan I stopped. Everywhere I stopped when I was wounded. And he went to Berlin to learn more, to work. While on a dark street in Chicago other men went to work on me. I was in George Cotton. I was walking home with my wife.'
[00:16:40] Unknown:
'George!' 'Yeah? Yeah, Mabel?' don't look now, but two men back, they're fine.' 'Ah, you're just uneasy because it's dark along
[00:16:48] Unknown:
here. Every night we come by here, it's always the same old story.
[00:16:51] Unknown:
George, don't look now, but two men George, they're coming up here. They're running this way. Look.
[00:16:57] Unknown:
Hey. You two. Hold up there. Don't run or we'll throw a bullet in your back. Put up your hand. Watch this. Hey. Hey. You take your hands off me. George, don't he's got a knife. And I got my fish to take you smart guy. George, watch out. Watch out.
[00:17:10] Unknown:
George is damned.
[00:17:13] Unknown:
Help. Shut off. Let this shut off. Fuck out her.
[00:17:19] Unknown:
He he looks like he's dead. Oh, wait. That's shocking. I almost stabbed him in the heart. You're too quick with that knife. I told you. Rifle is Puckett, and stop preaching.
[00:17:29] Unknown:
I can't hold this for you all night. Okay, Lefty. Okay.
[00:17:33] Unknown:
Oh, of all the lousy luck, $10 is all you had. You're a liar. No. Lefty. Honest. Of course, my heart. I'll cut out your heart. Come across. Honest, Lefty. You know me. I wouldn't lie to you. You're a liar. Shut up. Well, I'll be darned. Two more dead presidents stuck in my hand. What do you know about that? I know you're a liar, but we gotta get out of here. What do we do with the old lady? If she knows what's good for her, she'll keep quiet. Take my old man to the morgue. There's our real good sawbones up at the hospital there, lady. Dan Williams. He helped me. I can fool and pick up your feet.
[00:18:06] Unknown:
Okay. Go. Go. Get going.
[00:18:09] Unknown:
Oh, George. George. You're not there. Oh, George. No. I can still hear your heart. A little. Just a little. It's still beating. Or Lord, let it keep on till I can get into the hospital. Let it keep beating until I can get a doctor. Somewhere. Somewhere, there must be a doctor who can help you. There must be one somewhere.
[00:19:06] Unknown:
Or, as you say in English, I welcome you doctors to Berlin to do your research on heart surgery.
[00:19:15] Unknown:
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, professor Gerhard. Yeah. You are chief of the heart specialist here. I understand. We'd like to hear of your work. Why, I I wanted to ask you. I heard that in America,
[00:19:28] Unknown:
you have had successful heart operations.
[00:19:30] Unknown:
Successful? You hear that? I know. Sure. We've had plenty successful heart operations, professor. Only the patients died. I know. Professor, professor, I understand you German doctors are coming pretty close to finding a way to suit you the heart. Is that right? Well, I was about to say it has been done. Well, I'd sure like to study under the man who's done that. Oh, I I did not mean here. I I meant in America.
[00:19:59] Unknown:
I read that in Chicago. Chicago. I forgot. They're doctors. There is an American doctor in the next room. He's on the staff of Eichelberger Clinic. I invented I invited him over here to join us. Is that right? We'd be delighted to have him, professor. The more the merrier. Maybe he'd like to join the society. Bring him in. Sure. Hi, friend. Hi, the way, head doctors. Hi, the way, it's just the other out here. Just in here.
[00:20:27] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Doctors, this is doctor
[00:20:31] Unknown:
doctor Daly. Good evening, gentlemen. Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt. A professor said some of my fellow countrymen wanted me to join
[00:20:43] Unknown:
them. Yeah. Yeah. Here, doctor. Here, sit here by doctor Martin.
[00:20:46] Unknown:
Just a minute, professor. I I think you brought your friend to the wrong place.
[00:20:52] Unknown:
Wrong place?
[00:20:53] Unknown:
This society is for doctors. Well, he he is a doctor. He's not a white doctor, professor. The society accepts only white doctors. Well, is not a doctor a doctor? Can't you understand?
[00:21:07] Unknown:
Well, I I never heard of such a thing. I I I'll explain it to you, professor.
[00:21:13] Unknown:
He means, insofar as Hill Society is concerned, what science proves about the equality of peoples is just make believe. He believes there is a master race, and he belongs to it. His field is for the few, not the many. He has a disease harder to cure than a heart wound. I'll join you in class here, professor, in the morning.
[00:21:44] Unknown:
This is outrageous.
[00:21:45] Unknown:
But I tell you he is one of the best doctors in Berlin. I have noticed this word. But didn't you notice his color? Color? Yeah. Yeah. I did. He is the same color as the man I was going to tell you about in America, Doctor Daniel Williams. The news just come over the wire. Two weeks ago, 07/10/1893, doctor Williams completed one of the first successful operations on the human heart. The patient was George Cotton. And her doctors, the patient lived.
[00:22:30] Unknown:
Yes. Daley, the patient lived. George Cotton got up and walked in two weeks. So you want to work as my assistant. What can I teach you you don't already know? But this, maybe someday you will have cases exactly like mine. This Cotton, they brought him in one night stabbed by thugs. His heart struggling to beat. At first, it was so faint the stethoscope couldn't pick it up. I searched, then I found it. I tell you there may be sounds more beautiful than a human heartbeat, but I've never heard them. I took him into Provident Hospital two in the morning. No time for a big staff, fancy equipment.
[00:23:14] Unknown:
I had to work fast.
[00:23:16] Unknown:
Then with these hands, I took out his heart and stitched it six times. I did it for one patient, and I did it for another. And this I learned. Now follow this closely. Yes, doctor Williams.
[00:23:32] Unknown:
This heart,
[00:23:34] Unknown:
this human heart is not just a delicate thing, but it's also tough and strong. It'll stand just so much pressure when you're going to handle it. It's the little things that you do that'll make the difference between life and death. Now you remember this when you're calling for your scalpel, sponges, sutures, clamps. Clamps. You cannot give the patient much anesthesia. He's too weak to stand at the suture. He can have his eyes open watching and waiting. Cut your window over the fourth rib and tie off the vessels. Ready. When you lift the window, you'll see the heart. Cramps.
[00:24:11] Unknown:
Here. It's like a slippery fish. Cramped. It writhes,
[00:24:15] Unknown:
twists, and struggles like it's trying to break free. Ready. Take the stitches in between the heartbeats. Got four. And if the stitches hold back the flow, you've got a chance.
[00:24:25] Unknown:
Yes, darling. But remember,
[00:24:27] Unknown:
keep in rhythm with a heartbeat. Keep the rhythm.
[00:24:32] Unknown:
Never break that rhythm. Now, it's ready. We'll lift up the window. Steady. Easy now. Easy. Doctor.
[00:24:48] Unknown:
What are you taking off me, doctor?
[00:24:53] Unknown:
It's off. The heart. Look at it writhe and twist. Doctor.
[00:25:02] Unknown:
Doctor. Keep check on his respiration.
[00:25:04] Unknown:
Transfusion ready. It's on the rack, doctor.
[00:25:07] Unknown:
I feel so so weak, doctor.
[00:25:13] Unknown:
So weak. Pressure. He's he's gasping. He's weak. Got to get on. Pray to lift the heart. Lift it out of the body. Not too much pressure. Keep in rhythm with the heartbeat.
[00:25:32] Unknown:
Doctor, everything's gone wrong.
[00:25:37] Unknown:
A little more. There. Now it's out. Now to hold it in my left hand, blood leaking out. Not much time. Nurse needle curve needle. Right here. Fine silicone. It's threaded. Ready. Alright. If the stitches hold three stitches, stop the link.
[00:26:07] Unknown:
One,
[00:26:10] Unknown:
two,
[00:26:15] Unknown:
three.
[00:26:26] Unknown:
It's still big. Too large. Let it stop. It stopped. Oh, thank heavens. But his pressure, it's gone down. His heart's hardly beating.
[00:26:51] Unknown:
Doctor. A falling, falling, falling,
[00:26:56] Unknown:
doctor. Gentlemen, quick. Gentlemen. I've got it, doctor. Locate a vein in his arm. Hurry. I'm I'm trying to, doctor, but his nerves have collapsed. I can't find it. Make a scalpel. Cut down. Make a cut down. Pick one or two. I've got it, doctor. Shoot it in. Good. Transducer's empty. Yes, doctor. And let the blood flow into him. There. It's holding. Getting more. Let it go freely. It's going in.
[00:27:26] Unknown:
The beat's picking up.
[00:27:29] Unknown:
Good. Good. Okay. System, clean the incision. Sprinkle sulfur. Take off the clamps. Fill up the vessels. We've won. You'll make it.
[00:27:46] Unknown:
I did make it. I am the human heart, a hollow bag the size of your fist. When I was wounded, these are some of the men who first healed my wounds.
[00:28:18] Unknown:
You have just heard Destination Freedom's dramatization of the story of doctor Ulysses Grant Daly and doctor Daniel Williams, among the first of the world surgeons to devise a successful method for heart sutures. Destination Freedom is Richard by written by Richard Durham and produced under the direction of Homer Heck. Doctor Bailey was played by Fred Pinkard. Others were Larry Alexander, Oscar Brown Junior, Donald Gallagher, Janice Kingslow, Kurt Kuffer, William Nicks, Tony Perish, Arthur Peterson, and Dorothy Van Zant. Greg Pascal was the singer. The special music was written by Emil Soderstrom and was played by Elwyn Owen and Bobby Christian.
This is Charles Chan inviting you to be with us again next week for another in our series of the Negro in democracy, destination freedom. This is WMAQ NBC in Chicago.
Introduction to Destination Freedom
The Human Heart Speaks
A Medical Emergency
A Doctor's Past and Promise
The Oath and the Journey
A Violent Encounter
Heart Surgery Innovations
A Successful Operation
Conclusion and Acknowledgments
