AN EARLY CASE OF SUCCESSFUL INTRACRANIAL
SURGERY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1910 JEWISH HOSPITAL
AUTHOR Morris Weiss, MD, FACP, FACC
T
his is a brief account of successful
intracranial surgery on Sept. 21,
1910, five years after Jewish Hospi-
tal was opened for patients.
William Forbis, the star base-
ball player of the Kosmodale Ce-
menters (sporting a 0.465 batting
average) was struck in the head by a pitched
baseball while warming up for a game, on a clear fall day near
the end of the season. The ball struck his head in the area of the
temple, knocking him unconscious. He was rushed to his home in
Garnettsville, Kentucky (Meade County).
The fragment of bone was seen pressing on his brain. When
Forbis arrived in Garnettsville, his uncle Dr. Burrel Forbis, who
practiced in Harrison County, Indiana, had rushed to treat his
nephew.
26
hours after operation.
The surgeons told the newspaper the removal of a portion of
the brain was likely to cause impairment of function in the future.
Forbis made a complete recovery. He worked as a carpenter in his
hometown of Garnettsville and ended his career in Camp Taylor
in Louisville. He died in Camp Taylor, Aug. 10, 1943 at age 71
from “cancer of the right lung.”
Dr. W. C. Dugan graduated from the Kentucky School of Med-
icine in 1883. Dr. Elmer Lee graduated from the University of
Louisville Medical School in 1909. The hospital records were lost
in the Jewish Hospital basement during the Great Flood of 1937.
This brief account is not possible without the research of David L.
Baker of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, to whom I am eternally grate-
ful.
Resources
Well Known Baseball Player Injured, Courier Journal, September 21, 1910
Dr. Forbis consulted with local physicians from Garnettsville,
West Point and Stithton – all agreed as a last resort he should be
transferred to Jewish Hospital in Louisville for brain surgery. As Last Resort Operation on W P Forbis, Courier Journal, September 22,
1910
The next morning, Dr. William C. Dugan and Dr. Elmer Hen-
derson at Jewish Hospital removed a portion of the skull and in-
jured brain tissue. A silver plate was implanted to cover the ex-
posed brain. The procedure attracted many (said to be 100) phy-
sicians to Jewish Hospital to visit the patient who awakened 48 Forbis’ Benefit at Portland Park, Courier Journal, October 6, 1910
LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Injured Baseball Player Shows Improvement, Courier Journal, September 23,
1910
Dr. Weiss is an Emeritus Professor of cardiology at the University of Louisville
School of Medicine.