Pediatric Surgery

In 1946, when C. Everett Koop '37 began working at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, surgery on newborns was nearly unknown only two surgeons in the country specialized in children. Koop helped change all that, bringing pediatric surgery to prominence by urging the development of safer anesthesia for infants and children and by tackling cases other physicians dismissed as impossible.

During his 34-year surgical career Koop made it routine to operate on newborns with such congenital defects as spina bifida, cleft palate, and deformed limbs. By the time he became Surgeon General of the United States, Koop had separated a dozen sets of Siamese twins (including the first successful separation of twins who shared a single heart) and performed more than 17,000 hernia operations.

Koop with separated twins Clara and Alta.