Name Mary Jones | ||
Mary Dixon Jones (1828–1908) is known for being the first American physician to propose and perform a total hysterectomy to treat a tumor in the uterine muscle (myoma). Her work doing gynecological surgery at Woman's Hospital of Brooklyn drew the attention of the news media, and she was the subject of a twenty-four article investigative expose by the Brooklyn Eagle. As a result, she was charges with one count of murder, and one count of manslaughter. She was found not guilty, and sued the Eagle. She lost the libel case, and closed her medical practice. Jones then spent the last years of her medical career doing research on the tissue pathology of gynecological conditions.
Contents
- Early life and education
- Early medical career and further education
- Specialization in obstetric and gynecologic surgery
- Investigative news report and court trial
- Later career death and legacy
- References
Early life and education
Mary Amanda Dixon was born in Maryland to Noah Dixon and Sally Turner Dixon Maryland in 1828. She attended Wesleyan Female College in Wilmington, Delaware, and after graduation in 1845, she join the faculty for four years to teach physiology and literature. During this time, she informally apprenticed with Henry F. Askew, president of the American Medical Association to study medicine. Dixon continued her studies in Baltimore with Thomas E. Bond, Jr., who founded the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, while she taught at Baltimore Female College.
Early medical career and further education
In 1854 Dixon married John Quincy Adams Jones, and the couple relocated to Illinois and then later Wisconsin. They had three children together. In 1862, Mary Jones moved, without her family, to New York City to study medicine at the Hygeio-Therapeutic Medical College. After graduation she moved to Brooklyn and open a private medical practice specializing in obstetric and gynecological surgery. After ten years Jones decided to obtain further training at Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
Specialization in obstetric and gynecologic surgery
When she completed her studies in 1875, she returned to Brooklyn to a private practice and also worked at Woman's Hospital of Brooklyn. In 1882, Jones became chief medical officer of Woman's Hospital of Brooklyn. Jones specialized in the treatment of complicated diseases of the women's reproductive system. Additionally, she studied the pathology of laboratory specimens for diseases she treated.
In 1888, Jones removed the uterus and a 17-pound tumor from a living patient. The patient recovered within several weeks making Jones the first American physician to perform a successful total hysterectomy for an uterine myoma (uterine fibroid tumor).
Jones published over fifty medical articles and was an associate editor of the American Journal of Surgery and Gynecology, and the Woman's Medical Journal.
Investigative news report and court trial
On April 24, 1889 The Brooklyn Eagle started a twenty-four piece investigative report on Jones and the Woman's Hospital of Brooklyn. The pieces caught the attention of the legal authorities, and on May 31, 1889 a grand jury indicted her along with her son, Charles Dixon Jones, on two counts: 1) murder in the second degree for the death of Sarah Bates, and 2) manslaughter in the second degree in the death of Ida Hunt. The trail occurred from February 17, 1890 to February 23, 1890, and Mary Jones was found not guilty, and Charles Jones had a directed acquittal. Jones countered with a libel case against the Eagle. Jones lost her libel suit in 1892.
Later career, death, and legacy
After Jones lost the libel case, she closed her medical practice and continued her work researching the tissue pathology of diseases of the women's reproductive system.