It interests me that the profession of doctor
and the profession of gunslinger should both be so dependent on dexterity—and hand/eye
coordination—yet one takes life and the other saves it. But it fascinates me
even more that the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West should
have taken place at a time when one of the greatest doctors in the nation, a
specialist in gunshot wounds whose methods are still employed today, should
have been practicing in Tombstone, AZ.
 |
| George Goodfellow, photo by C.S.Fly, Tombstone |
George Emory Goodfellow was born a westerner
although educated back east. Son of a miner—eventually a mining engineer and mining
executive—Goodfellow was sent off to boarding school at the age of twelve but
returned to California to attend military academy. His future was certainly oriented toward a
career in the armed services, and he briefly attended Annapolis before being expelled
for fighting with the first African American cadet. Having a wide range of
interests, Goodfellow sought out his cousin, a doctor, and studied with him
before going on to medical school in Ohio. Returning west, he eventually
settled in Arizona Territory, initially working in Prescott with the Army
before relocating in 1880 to the flourishing mining town of…Tombstone.
If you’re envisaging a kindly country doctor
along the lines of Doc Adams in ‘Gunsmoke,’ think again. The hard-drinking gambler, Goodfellow had
been boxing champion at Annapolis and had a penchant for getting into fights,
both with his fists and with a gun. Furthermore, he was quite the Renaissance
Man with numerous and varied interests. Aged just twenty-five, he opened his
office on the second floor of the Crystal Palace Saloon and settled down for
his place in history. While many of his cases involved mining accidents, there
was mounting practice in gunshot wounds. Making advancements in this area, he
would eventually write articles that appeared in learned journals propounding
that gunshots from .44 or .45 caliber into the abdomen were almost always fatal,
as opposed to .32 calibre and lower. In those cases, he deduced, the main
danger would be from either fecal or urinary matter causing infection. The higher
calibire shot would rest in the abdominal cavity, thereby causing the victim to
bleed to death unless a laparotomy
was performed almost immediately. His treatise on this subject, ‘Cases of
Gunshot Wound in the Abdomen Treated by Operation’ eventually appeared in the
May, 1889, edition of The Southern California Practitioner. Goodfellow, who believed in Lister’s practice
of antisepsis surgery and Germ Theory, actually performed the first laparotomy
on a miner shot outside of Tombstone. This procedure is still in use today. He also observed a shoot-out that took place
at close range, and discovered the bullet that entered one of the contenders
was still wrapped in a silk handkerchief from the man’s pocket. Studying this closely, he wrote, ‘Notes on the Impenetrability of Silk to
Bullets,’ also for the Southern California Practitioner. He advised that
bullet-proof vests could be manufactured from silk, and made the first one of
eighteen layers of silk. By the end of the century, such vests were in
production.
So, by the time October, 1881, rolled around
and there took place something now called Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, it was
extremely opportune that George Goodfellow was on call. Goodfellow tended to the
wounded on both sides of the argument. Unable to help cowboy Billy Clanton with
six bullets in him, he removed the boy’s boots because Billy had promised his
mother to die with his boots off. Goodfellow's testimony at the Earps’ and Doc
Holliday’s trial played a large part in having the case against them dismissed
as self-defense; he testified that the position of Billy Claiborne’s arm could
not have been raised in the air.
Two months later, Virgil Earp was ambushed as
he walked from the Oriental Saloon, hitting him in the arm with buckshot. It
was Goodfellow’s belief that the arm should be amputated but Virgil
refused. Operating at the Cosmopolitan
Hotel, Goodfellow removed approximately four inches of the shattered humerus
bone, saving the arm but leaving it crippled. Still, Virgil had his gun arm and
was later able to serve as a US Marshal. His brother Morgan was not so lucky.
Shot in the back while playing billiards, he died within the hour. As County
Coroner, Goodfellow performed Morgan’s autopsy.
But while he was known as ‘The Gunslingers’
Surgeon,’ Goodfellow’s advances in medicine did not stop with gunshot wounds,
nor was medicine his only field of expertise.
In the coming years, he performed the first successful prostatectomy and
was among the first surgeons to use spinal anesthesia. He performed
reconstructive face surgery, and also advocated the dry air of the desert as a
treatment for tuberculosis, facilitating the large number of sanatoriums that
would soon appear in Arizona.
Outside of medicine, in 1886, Goodfellow rode
with the US Army to recapture
Geronimo who had escaped from the San Carlos
reservation. He eventually befriended the man. In 1887, he made two trips to
aid survivors of the Sonoran earthquake and to study the effects of the quake. He
reported his findings in the US scientific journal, Science, and for his
work, the Mexican President awarded him the gift of a horse.
He proved, in
1891, that the bite of a Gila Monster was not necessarily fatal and published his
findings in Scientific American. And having become personal physician to
General Shafter during the Spanish-American War, he is credited with helping in
negotiations for the peace settlement, due to his knowledge of Spanish.
 |
| Geronimo |
 |
| Goodfellow on his gift horse |
Goodfellow’s later career had him setting up
practice in Tucson prior to moving to San Francisco. Sadly, the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed
his manuscripts and patient records, and Goodfellow was forced to take a job with
the Southern Pacific Railroad in Mexico as their chief surgeon. He subsequently returned in 1910 to his
sister’s home in Los Angeles, where he died aged fifty-five.
George Goodfellow, the ‘Gunslinger’s Surgeon,’
is credited with being the first trauma specialist.
What an interesting post! I never heard of Goodfellow before, or at least not in a memorable way. He was quite the observer and innovator. The amount he accomplished in his short life in a time without benefit of our technology is mind boggling! Thanks for bringing him to life for us, Andi.
ReplyDeleteFascinating! I got a chuckle out of the silk bullet-proof vests, only because my husband and I have been watching Japanese monster movies and have been wondering about Mothra's superpower of praying his opponent with a thin strand of silk. Maybe they also knew this about the strength of silk!
ReplyDeletePatti, I considered learning about him quite a find. Obviously, he did most of his learning about bullet wounds on the job but to become a national authority on the subject while being involved with the lot at Tombstone is quite a remarkable coincidence.
ReplyDeleteWell, Brigid, I'm afraid I can't comment on the monster movies (as interesting as that is!) but the silk vests were put into production and were the first so-called bullet-proof vests. The patient who had been shot with a silk hankie in his pocket actually died as bullet encased in silk hankie pierced his heart.
ReplyDelete