Description
Book SynopsisA compelling reckoning with the birth of women's health that illuminates the sacrifices of a young woman who changed the world only to be forgotten by ituntil now
For more than a century, Dr. J. Marion Sims was hailed as the father of modern gynecology. He founded a hospital in New York City and had a profitable career treating gentry and royalty in Europe, becoming one of the world's first celebrity surgeons. Statues were built in his honor, but he wasn't the hero he had made himself appear to be.
Sims's greatest medical claim was the result of several years of experimental surgerieswithout anesthesiaon a young enslaved woman known as Anarcha; his so-called cure for obstetric fistula forever altered the path of women's health.
One medical text after another hailed Anarcha as the embodiment of the pivotal role that Sims played in the history of surgery. Decades later, a groundswell of women objecting to Sims's legacy celebrated
