Evan O'Neill Kane | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 6, 1861[1] |
| Died | April 1, 1932 (aged 70) |
| Alma mater | Jefferson Medical College[1] |
| Occupation | Surgeon |
| Known for | Self-surgery |
Evan O'Neill Kane (April 6, 1861 – April 1, 1932)[2] was an American physician and surgeon from the 1880s to the early 1930s who served as chief of surgery at Kane Summit Hospital in Kane, Pennsylvania. He was a significant contributor in his day to railway surgery; that is, the medical and managerial practices directed toward occupational health and accident-related trauma surgery for railroad workers. Kane was also a well published contributor of innovations in surgical procedures and equipment, including asbestos bandages, mica windows for brain surgery, and multiple site hypodermoclysis.
Kane was convinced that particular surgeries need not involve general anesthesia. He is most well known, both in his own time and today, for demonstrating this by performing self-surgery in 1921 to remove his own appendix under local anesthetic. In 1932 at age 70, he very publicly again performed self-surgery to repair a hernia. Some of Kane’s practices were idiosyncratic. For instance, he left a small inked, coded signature beside the incisions of some of his surgical patients. He also proposed tattooing mothers and newborn babies with matching marks to avoid accidental mix ups.
Kane was a member of a notable Pennsylvania family that included several physicians (including his mother) that had earlier given its name to both their community and his primary hospital of practice; their family home, Anoatok, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Kane was also in the public eye in 1931 when he testified at the sensational trial of his son, Elisha Kent Kane III, a college professor, who was acquitted of murder in Elizabeth City County, Virginia after the drowning death of his wife during their trip to a Back River Light beach.