Grave of Jane Todd Crawford
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 39° 08.092 W 087° 32.442
16S E 453268 N 4331882
Story of a woman who endured abdominal surgery without anesthesia.
Waymark Code: WM376A
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 02/21/2008
Views: 35
Marker Erected by: The Woman's Auxiliary to the Southern Medical Association.
Location: IN-63, Johnson Cemetery, 1 mile N. of Graysville.
Marker Text:
GRAVE OF JANE TODD CRAWFORD
Pioneer Heroine of Abdominal Surgery
Jane Todd was born in Virginia in 1763. In 1805 she and her husband, Thomas Crawford, moved to Green County, Ky. Suffering from a huge abdominal tumor, she rode 60 miles to Danville, Ky., to submit to an operation never before performed. On December 25, 1809, Dr. Ephraim McDowell performed this, the first ovariotomy, in his home. The ordeal lasted 25 minutes. There was no anesthesia. Mrs. Crawford recovered completely. Years later she came to Graysville to live with her son, Thomas, a Presbyterian minister. She died in 1842 at age 78. She is buried here. The restored McDowell home in Danville is a surgical shrine.