Robert Battey facts for kids
Robert Battey (November 26, 1828 - November 8, 1895) was an American physician who is known for pioneering a surgical procedure then called Battey's Operation and now termed radical oophorectomy (or removal of a woman's ovaries).
Biography
Robert Battey was born in Augusta, Georgia to Cephas and Mary Agnes Magruder Battey. He was educated in Augusta and at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. He graduated from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1856. He went on to take courses at Jefferson Medical College, graduating in 1857. In the same year he studied at the Obstetrical Institute of Philadelphia gaining a diploma from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1859 he toured Ireland and also Great Britain, where he was introduced to the ovariotomist Thomas Spencer Wells.
Battey served four years as a surgeon in the Nineteenth Georgia Volunteer Regiment during the American Civil War. After the Confederate surrender in April 1865, Battey resumed his practice in Rome, Georgia. His field of study was gynecology, and he became well known for a procedure he pioneered to remove a woman's ovaries. Initially referred to as ovariotomy, and named "Battey's Operation" in his honor, it is what today is termed a radical oophorectomy. He performed the first successful oophorectomy in May 1869 when he successfully removed a large dermoid cyst from a physician's wife. On August 27, 1872 he performed his first 'normal' oophorectomy. The patient, Julie Omberg, had diseased ovaries and lived to be 80 years old. There was a lynch mob waiting for Dr. Battey if he failed the operation.
He was instrumental in establishing the Gynecological Infirmary in Rome, Georgia, later enlarged and renamed the Martha Battey Hospital in honor of his wife.
In 1873, Battey became a professor of obstetrics at the Atlanta Medical College, where he stayed until 1875. He co-founded the American Gynecological Society in 1876, and was elected president in 1888. Hecontinued to practice medicine until his death on November 8, 1895.
Medical Association Memberships
- American Medical Association
- American Gynecological Society (for further reading see here.)
