George E. Goodfellow

George E. Goodfellow
George E. Goodfellow
Dr. George E. Goodfellow
Born(1855-12-23)December 23, 1855[1]
Downieville, California
DiedDecember 7, 1910(1910-12-07) (aged 54)[1]
Los Angeles, California
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Physician, surgeon
Known forAuthority on gunshot wounds
Spouses
  • Katherine Colt
  • Mary Elizabeth
ChildrenEdith Goodfellow
George M. Goodfellow

George Emory Goodfellow (December 23, 1855 – December 7, 1910) was a physician and naturalist in the 19th- and early 20th-century American Old West who developed a reputation as the United States' foremost expert in treating gunshot wounds. As a medical practitioner in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, Goodfellow treated numerous bullet wounds to both lawmen and outlaws. He recorded several significant medical firsts throughout his career, including performing the first documented laparotomy for treating an abdominal gunshot wound and the first perineal prostatectomy to remove an enlarged prostate. He also pioneered the use of spinal anesthesia and sterile techniques in treating gunshot wounds and is regarded as the first civilian trauma surgeon.

Goodfellow was known as a pugnacious, "brilliant and versatile"[2] physician with wide-ranging interests. He not only practiced medicine but also conducted research into the venom of gila monsters; published the first surface rupture map of an earthquake in North America; interviewed Geronimo; and played a role in brokering a peace settlement in the Spanish–American War.[3] He was a skilled boxer, and in his first year at the United States Naval Academy he became the academy's boxing champion, though he was soon dismissed for his involvement in a hazing incident against the first African-American to attend the institution. In 1889, he got into a fight with another man and stabbed him, but was found to have acted in self-defense.

Goodfellow treated Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp after they were wounded in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. His testimony later helped absolve the Earps and Doc Holliday of murder charges for having shot and killed three outlaw Cowboys during the gunfight. He treated Virgil again when he was maimed in an ambush and rushed to Morgan's side when he was mortally wounded by an assassin. Goodfellow left Tombstone in 1889 and established a successful practice in Tucson before moving to San Francisco in 1899 and opening a medical office there. He lost his practice and all of his personal belongings in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequently returned to the Southwest, where he became the chief surgeon for the Southern Pacific Railroad in Mexico. He fell ill in 1910 and died later that year in Los Angeles.

  1. ^ a b "Biographical Note" (PDF). Arizona Historical Society. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 13, 2012. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  2. ^ Hinsley, Curtis M.; Wilcox, David R. (2002). The Lost Itinerary of Frank Hamilton Cushing. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 324. ISBN 978-0816522699.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference ahsl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).