Historedia
Episode 1 of 1

First Successful Ovariotomy

When
25 December 1809
Where
Danville, Kentucky
Part of
Ephraim McDowell performs the first ovariotomy, 25 December 1809

Ephraim McDowell performed the first successful removal of an ovarian tumor on Jane Todd Crawford in Danville, Kentucky.

On Christmas morning, 1809, McDowell operated on Jane Todd Crawford in Danville, removing an ovarian tumor without anesthesia. This was the first successful abdominal exploration of its kind, as previous attempts resulted in death.

Sources

  1. Ephraim McDowell Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-27
  2. Danville, Kentucky Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.