On September 20, 1958, alumnus Aubré de Lambert Maynard, MD, was credited with redeeming the beingness of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Stabbed successful the thorax by a disturbed pistillate astatine a book-signing lawsuit successful a Harlem section store, Dr. King was taken to Harlem Hospital. Dr. Maynard, an authorization connected thorax and abdominal wounds, was the hospital’s main of surgery. Fortunately, nary effort had been made to region the leaf earlier Dr. Maynard took Dr. King to the operating room, arsenic that could person led to a fatal hemorrhage.
Dr. Maynard, an migrant from Guyana, earned his aesculapian grade successful 1926 from University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, the precursor to NYU Grossman School of Medicine, which is present the No. 2 aesculapian schoolhouse successful the state for research. He would spell connected to brushwood radical obstacles astatine nationalist and voluntary hospitals successful New York City and astir the country. In 1930, Harlem Hospital was 1 of the country’s archetypal aesculapian institutions with a racially integrated unit astatine each levels, and it was thriving amid a increasing African American population. Dr. Maynard, who placed archetypal connected the yearly internship exam, became the hospital’s archetypal Black intern, paving the mode for countless different aspiring Black physicians. Dr. Maynard was the taxable of the 2002 publication When Harlem Nearly Killed King. In 1978, helium wrote his ain book, Surgeons to the Poor: The Harlem Hospital Story.
A decennary aft the incident, connected the nighttime earlier helium was assassinated successful Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. King referred to the occurrence successful his celebrated “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, acknowledging that if helium had truthful overmuch arsenic sneezed portion the weapon was successful his chest, helium mightiness person died from the injury. Having recovered from the wound, Dr. King was discharged from the infirmary successful little than 2 weeks.
Dr. Maynard died successful 1999 astatine the property of 97. Three years earlier, helium recalled the aggravated unit helium felt erstwhile called upon to run connected Dr. King with a squad of trauma surgeons. “It was a momentous juncture for Harlem Hospital due to the fact that it was a antheral of Dr. King’s presumption who was known each implicit the world,” helium explained. “For him to beryllium brought to Harlem Hospital for a unsafe happening similar that, it was a challenge. Could Harlem Hospital amusement that it was up to this task? It was a metropolis hospital, and it was looked down upon. It was up to maine to amusement the satellite that it could beryllium done there.”
In the period since Dr. Maynard archetypal encountered truthful galore radical obstacles, the aesculapian assemblage has made large strides successful affording opportunities to Black physicians. Inspired by Dr. Maynard and galore different Black graduates, who person not lone made historical contributions, but besides provided exceptional mundane attraction to their communities, NYU Langone Health has been astatine the forefront of efforts to code radical disparities.
In 2022, NYU Grossman School of Medicine achieved 2 important milestones successful its pursuit of greater diverseness successful healthcare, 1 successful aesculapian grooming and the different successful diligent care. The residency program of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery became 1 of the nation’s astir diverse, with Black physicians accounting for astir 15 percent of its trainees—nearly 3 times the nationalist mean for akin programs.
Moreover, the precocious established Institute for Excellence successful Health Equity serves arsenic the coordinating halfway for a collaboration betwixt 8 universities to forestall hypertension and trim radical inequities successful cardiovascular illness outcomes successful Black communities.
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