Harvey Williams Cushing (1869–1939) was an American neurosurgeon, pioneer of brain surgery, and a biographer. Together with Ernest Sachs, Cushing is known as the “father of neurosurgery.”
Born as the youngest of ten children in Cleveland, Ohio, Cushing attended Yale and Harvard Medical School. He completed an internship at Massachusetts General Hospital and did residency at Johns Hopkins.
Cushing pioneered the use of X-rays in the diagnosis of brain tumors and developed methods to improve patient survival after major brain operations. It was under his influence that neurosurgery became a new and autonomous surgical discipline. He was the first to describe Cushing’s disease, caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland.
In addition to being a talented brain surgeon, Cushing was also a exceptional biographer. He was awarded the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for his biography, The Life of Sir William Osler (1925.) Sir William Osler, the “Father of Modern Medicine,” was Cushing’s mentor during his residency in surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Cushing was a candidate for the Nobel Prize 38 times.
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The capacity of man himself is only revealed when, under stress and responsibility, he breaks through his educational shell, and he may then be a splendid surprise to himself no less than to his teachers.
—Harvey Williams Cushing
Topics: Stress