Remembering Dr. Rowena Spencer (1922–2014)

Topic overview

Abstract

Rowena Spencer (1922–2014) was the country's first woman pediatric surgeon. She was one of four women in her medical school class at Johns Hopkins (1943–1947), the first woman intern in surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital working under Alfred Blalock (1947–1948), the first woman to train in pediatric surgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia working under C. Everett Koop (1948–1949), the first woman to complete a surgery residency at Charity Hospital in New Orleans (1953), and the first woman to join the surgery faculty at Louisiana State University in New Orleans (1953). She was an expert on conjoined twins, writing a substantial text on the subject. She died in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2014 at the age of 91. This biographical essay, written by a patient, shares a family's memories of Spencer over a period of nearly 6 decades. It also shares her reflections on her patients, her career, and the profession of pediatric surgery.

Keywords

Hashtags