The Legacy of Infant Surgery without Anesthesia: Implications for Today

Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 6-7:15pm (Eastern)

~ Jonathon Erlen Lecture ~

Wendy Patrice Williams (Independent Scholar)

In the United States until 1986, it was standard medical protocol for surgeons to operate on infants and children under two without anesthesia or pain control; instead, paralytic drugs were given to keep them still, though conscious, albeit in an altered state. In 1952 at 26 days old, Wendy Patrice Williams underwent surgery for pyloric stenosis, and her memoir Autobiography of a Sea Creature: Healing the Trauma of Infant Surgery recounts the lifelong struggles she has endured with the preverbal trauma which resulted and also details the ways in which she has found to heal. Over many years as a blogger and as a result of the publication of her book, she has encountered numerous other individuals who have had similar histories and struggles, and in fact, anyone currently age 39 and older may be suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from infant surgery without anesthesia or pain control, a practice largely unacknowledged in medicine and only beginning to be understood by mental health professionals as a source of preverbal trauma.

In her memoir, Autobiography of a Sea Creature: Healing the Trauma of Infant Surgery (University of California Health Humanities Press, 2023), Wendy Patrice Williams shares her story of healing from PTSD that resulted from a stomach surgery at one-month old. She reveals her discovery that pre-1987, it was standard practice that infants needing surgery were not given anesthesia or pain control. Wendy blogs at Healing Infant Trauma and appears in the film Cutdown: Infant Surgery without Anesthesia, produced by Roey Shmool and free to watch at the link. Wendy earned a BA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing at Mills College and taught English at the College of Alameda and Folsom Lake College. She also studied biological sciences at Barnard College and marine science at the University of Miami. More information is available on her author page.

Here is a recording of the lecture.

The C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society thanks its dues-paying members and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law for its support of the continuing relevance of medical history in our world.

“Accompanying History: The Journey to Undocumented Physicians”

February 20, 2024, 6-7:15pm Eastern Time
~ Inaugural John Erlen Lecture ~
Mark G. Kuczewski, PhD, HEC-C

(Loyola University Chicago)

Medical history and bioethics are siblings under the rubric of “health humanities.” For this lecture, Dr. Kuczewski will explore the history of undocumented healers in the United States. He has been engaged in bedside clinical ethics issues for more than 25 years. For the last decade, he has also been an articulate spokesperson for the just and equitable treatment of immigrant patients, medical students, and clinicians.  At noon, Dr. Kuczewski will present a Grand Rounds entitled “Caring for Immigrant Patients: Clinical and Institutional Challenges” to the University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine. 

All Reynolds Society lectures are free and open to the public. This is the link to watch the recording of the evening lecture. You can check back here to see if the Grand Rounds recording has been posted.

Image description: We see the back of a young woman with brown skin and a long dark brown braid pulled forward over her shoulder. Colorful flowers and the words "I am one of those people Mexico sent" in white are painted on her bright red graduation mortar board with tassel. Credit: Bonnie Arbittier / San Antonio Report (2017)

The Child Amputee in Post-World War II America

September 26, 2023, 6-7:15pm Eastern Time

~ Annual Ravitch Lecture ~

Lisa Joy Pruitt, PhD (Middle Tennessee State University)

Dr. Lisa Joy Pruitt, PhD (Middle Tennessee University), will give the Annual Ravitch Lecture to kick off the C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society's 40th lecture season. Before 1945, the standard of care for child amputees and/or those with congenital limb differences was to delay treatment and rehabilitation when possible or otherwise to cope with surgical procedures and prosthetic limbs designed for adults. After 1945, practitioners coordinated their efforts, revolutionized the rehabilitation of child amputees, and profoundly influenced the development of pediatric prosthetics.

A recording of this free public online talk can be found by clicking here.

Image description: The first panel of the comic strip reads, "Do Not." In the second panel, a man with light skin and short black hair wearing hospital pajamas lies on a bed with his left leg bent over the edge; his left foot has been amputated. The text reads "...hang stump over bed." In the third panel a similar man is reading a newspaper. The text reads, "...sit in wheelchair with stump flexed." The image comes from A.B. Wilson, Jr., "Limb Prosthetics Today," Artificial Limbs 7 (1963): 1-42, page 13.