Surgeon George Hayward performed the second operation employing ether at Massachusetts General Hospital on October 17, 1847, and then the first capital operation—the successful amputation of a leg—later that year. The following year, on April 12th,…
Dr. George Hayward was Harvard's first professor of the principles of surgery and clinical surgery. In 1846, he performed the second public surgical operation utilizing ether anesthesia, and then the first major amputation.
In addition to being a…