I wonder how many of you are aware that the very first bowel resection for ischemic bowel disease was done Georgia Dr. William Simpson Armstrong. For those of you without a medical background, "ischemic bowel disease" is when, for a variety of reasons, the blood supply to a segment of the intestine gets cut off, much as it occurs when a person has a heart attack or a stroke. Until very recently, the only treatment for this was to surgically remove (resect) that segment of the intestine; if that isn't done very quickly, the patient usually dies very quickly of overwhelming infection as the gangrenous segment of the intestine releases its toxic contents into the bloodstream. The first such operation in medical history was performed by Dr. William Simpson Armstrong, Professor of Surgery and Anatomy at the Medical College of Atlanta (Georgia). The feat was performed sometime just prior to Dr. Armstrong's death in 1896, and is documented in newspaper clippings of Dr. Armstrong's obituary from the Atlanta Georgia newspaper. The obituary states that: "Dr. W. S. Armstrong, whose sudden death was chronicled yesterday, was one of the greatest surgeons who ever lived. Indeed, it is claimed that he performed the greatest operation ever made." A colleague of Dr. Armstrong's on the faculty of the medical school was operated on urgently for a presumed bowel tumor. The newspaper clipping states "...when the abdominal cavity was opened, it was discovered that twelve inches of the lower intestine was gangrenous. To replace it as it was found meant certain death. Dr. Armstrong removed the affected portion, and joined the separated parts together. The patient lived and is living today." "It is considered by physicians the most brilliant achievement in surgery ever, to their knowledge. What coolness, what perfect judgement, what care, what accuracy, what daring, what skillful after treatment was required to restore this man to life may be appreciated even by the layman. Statesmen give happiness and prosperity to their fellowmen; and other public benefactors confer their blessings on humanity; but it is left to the consummate skill and daring of such men as Dr. Armstrong to save human life. He was a great man." Dr. William Simpson Armstrong was the grandson of the Rev. James Armstrong and his wife Jane, who migrated from Hempstead, N.Y. first to Savannah, Georgia, and finally at the time the War of 1812 migrated to the Wilkes County, Georgia, area. He was born Oct. 9, 1838, the son of Francis Corvoisier Armstrong and his wife Frances Amanda Simpson. He studied medicine at the Medical College of Georgia and graduated in medicine from the State University of New York in 1859. He was supervisor of all the Confederate military hospitals in Virginia during the Civil War. He was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the Medical College of Atlanta in 1866 and in 1890 Professor of Clinical Surgery. He married Myra Grant, had one son Dr. William B. Armstrong and one daughter Laura Armstrong.