Historical Bibliography Updated: June 16, 2026

A report of a case of successful suturing of the heart, and table of thirty-seven other cases of suturing by different operations with various terminations, and the conclusions drawn.

HILL, Luther Leonidas Jr. (1862 – 1946) encyclopediaofalabama.org

Publication Details

Medical Record, 62, 846-848. 1902 CE.

Hill reported his successful suturing of a knife wound in the left ventricle. His patient, a thirteen-year-old boy recovered. This was the first successful suture of the heart performed in America. Hill argued "that any operation which reduces the mortality from 90 to about 63 per cent is entitled to a permanent place in surgery, and that every wound of the heart should be operated upon immediately."

"In the early morning hours of September 15, 1902, Hill was summoned by two local Montgomery physicians who were attempting to treat Henry Myrick, a 13-year-old African American youth, who had been the victim of a stab wound to the heart the previous afternoon. Six hours passed before the first physicians had been called, and another two hours passed before Hill arrived at the boy's home. Myrick's wound had been bleeding continuously, and although he was still conscious, his pulse was fading. Hill convinced the family to let him operate on the wound.

Although he was widely regarded as an authority on heart wounds, Hill had not actually operated on a living heart. Hill moved Myrick to a table and by lantern light began the procedure, assisted by his brother and a fourth physician who had arrived to administer chloroform to the patient. Hill opened the youth's chest and discovered a great deal of internal bleeding within the pericardium, the protective tissue surrounding the heart. To relieve pressure on the injured organ, Hill opened the pericardial sack to drain the blood. He then stitched the stab wound, which was in the left ventricle of Myrick's heart, with catgut thread. The entire procedure lasted 45 minutes. Myrick survived and within a few weeks had recovered from his injuries...."(R. Foster, http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2949).

Westaby & Bosher, Landmarks in cardiac surgery, 36-37, 316-318 reprinted this paper declaring, "It caused a sensation. 'Lived with Stabbed Heart' reported the headline of an article in the New York Sun, which described Hill's stitching of 13-year-old Henry Myrick's three-eight-inch stab wound in the left ventricle with a single catgut suture on the kitchen table of a shack, lit by two kerosene lamps."

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Browse Tags

Surgery & Anesthesia

Thematic Classifications

CARDIOVASCULAR (Cardiac) SURGERY

Catalog Metadata	Reference Information
Entry Number	#12249
Permanent Link	https://hom-sveltekit.fly.dev/entry/14464
Author Bio Link	encyclopediaofalabama.org ↗
External URL	a-report-of-a-case-of-successful-suturing-of-the-heart-and-table-of-thirtyseven-other-cases-of-suturing-by-different-operations-with-various-terminations-and-the-conclusions-drawn

Geographic Context

Mentioned in annotation: New York