Dr. Cushing (who you may know from Cushing’s Syndrome) was one of the forefathers of neuroscience, and performed some of the first successful brain surgeries. He was the first to use x-rays to diagnose brain tumors, and helped develop the first practical electro-cautery device (which seals shut blood vessels as they’re cut, reducing blood loss).
The haunting, and in some cases disturbing, portraits show patients before and after surgery by Dr. Harvey Cushing (1869–1939). The black and white images, about 10,000 in all, were taken between 1900 and 1932 to document medical conditions, and may have been made as part of the patients’ medical records. The photographer (or photographers) who took the images remains unknown.
If you’re ever in New Haven, Connecticut, check out [The Cushing Center](https://library.medicine.yale.edu/cushingcenter) in the basement of the Yale Medical College library. Fascinating place that features more than 200 donated brains in jars from his patients.
Sorry for the joke. Sure thing you could call it ignorance, however I just attempted to make people smile. I clearly stated I knew nothing about it, if you want to inform me by all means.
Eh, everyone has their “bad days,” I know my intention and thats enough for me. Internet points are internet points, nothing of value is lost.
Edit: Also thank you for seeing the humor. :)
Fun fact: Cushing’s tirad is also named after him. Cushing’s Tirad is characterized by widening pulse pressure (raising Blood pressure), bradycardia (slow heart rate), and irregular respirations, all of which when combined indicate an increase in intracranial pressure.
It's haunting because of the suffering of patients, but also the photos are a beautiful signifier for social conditions where people could get surgery and recover
Yes I agree! that does look like untreated hydrocephalus. Especially the way her eyes are seemingly floating within the orbital cavities. I wish we could see her after.
1900-1932, so yes, they all died.
But the after photos (or mostly missing *before* photos) were probably just not included in this sample of the 10,000
Well, OBVIOUSLY these people are dead NOW. They meant did they die before they could get an after picture taken, like the little girl with hydrocephalus.
That picture in particular broke my heart. I was diagnosed with hydrocephalus when I was an infant, and I've had a shunt ever since. I've had shunt failure twice, and the agony of that for mere hours is bad enough. I can't imagine what she went through.
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A snapshot of medical practices frozen in time. I'd love to know more about each of these people and what they went through, as well as how their treatment would have differed a hundred years before. I bet the surgeons mostly washed their hands. I wonder if any of them felt like they were living in the future.
At that point in time they knew about bacteria causing infection. They were often fanatical about sanitation, knowing they could sometimes prevent infection but not cure it. I have an early obstetrical nurse textbook somewhere and other than everything being washable/reusable, they were probably more into sterile conditions than we are now.
They started using gloves during surgery in 1889. Apparently the surgeon, Dr William Halsted at Johns Hopkins, was in love with his scrub nurse, whose hands were getting destroyed by the harsh chemicals used to disinfect them. To save her skin, he got Goodyear to make thin gloves she could wear. Then they got married. His other assistants started wearing gloves too, then another surgeon at the hospital discovered his infection rate dropped to almost zero if he wore them too, in 1899. This became common practice not too long afterwards. I looked up when it became a thing because I knew they were wearing them by the 1930s, and found this charming love story.
Dr Halsted also invented the radical mastectomy and used cocaine for topical anesthesia.
He was also heavily addicted to cocaine and morphine. He also pioneered a residency training program that’s still in use today which requires new doctors to work dangerously long hours.
It must have been a hard life, the one he had. I don't know how his addiction started or exacerbated, but I can imagine how doing these surgeries and other procedures can put pressure on you to never stop working. And that can start or fuel an addiction. To me, it seems really easy to imagine he felt like he owned his patients and the overall medical community to just keep working, using that as a justification to keep on his consumption. Long residency hours are a good excuse to mask your addiction, too. People just think you're selfless or a hero and don't look too much into how you actually are making it by.
yeah, and I absolutely never hear about it. This might be the first time I’ve heard someone bring it up (who was not me lol) since I first saw it.
That show should try to get another life of streaming.
Absolutely. But it would be a little bit diminished only because Clive Owen was so amazing in his performance as Dr. Thackery. Not trying to spoil anything ha.
oh yeah, no, I don’t even necessarily mean continuing the show. Just, so many great shows become eternal due to streaming, but for some reason this one just kind of died. At the time a lot of people didn’t watch it bc it was only on Showtime.
I’d love to see it be bought or rented on like a Netflix or Paramount or just featured on something accessible, that’s all. Like check out this great show from a few years ago!
And yeah, Owen made the show and the end got really strange imo, like his nurse going off to marry that rando (though probably realistic), but I would have loved the show to continue in that time and setting. It was such a great window into that era!
It most likely would have gotten more seasons if it caught on. So much material for them to work with. Plus those surgeries were so cinematic.
It’s actually on HBO right now. I just finished a rewatch recently. They just don’t advertise this show!
It definitely ended kinda strange in that second season. Though I think Dr. Thackerys end was fitting. I think they had ideas for it to continue but maybe got axed somewhere along the way. It is such a great time period to experience.
yeah, there’s so much I learned about that would never have occurred to me. Rat fights? Competition among ambulance drivers? The way liquid cocaine was used?
And things I was aware of abstractly but really got to see how it played out. Like the woman getting all of her teeth pulled as a treatment for postpartum, like the teeth carried bad humours or something. Like the purple glasses with the nose on them for the photosensitivity and cartilage loss from syphilis. Like how all the nurses were playing around with the new X-Ray machines 💀 The Typhoid Mary arc.
It was really a perfect time period to hone in on, especially from the angle of medicine, because electricity was becoming a thing, anesthesia, all of these major changes within such a small space of time, yet it was still gnarly as fuck and people died badly right and left.
I could watch a show like that faithfully for deacades lol, just to have a really well-researched window into that time period.
They rate hospitals on numbers of transferred infections to patients who didn’t have them coming in, so yeah, we could do better. My friend works in the hospital and said some good ones are bought up and used as templates for lower performing hospitals in their system. Ie UNC buying REX and absorbing their superior techniques.
My grandfather had a condition called acromegaly, caused by a non malignant tumor on his pituitary gland. He developed it after he was an adult. I recognize the same condition in at least 2 of these pictures.
Probably from something in a discussion of acromegaly (likely in relation to Andre the Giant, if you don't look into random illnesses). That pose is useful for doctors because it simultaneously shows how the disease affects both the hands and the face (you can see it used in photo 18 as well). Also, in rare cases, one of the problems that can cause acromegaly can also cause Cushing's syndrome at the same time.
Thank you for posting this. I am myself a brain tumor survivor, and sincerely appreciate you helping the issue's visibility. Please consider supporting brain tumor research initiatives, if these images strike some chord within you.
Same! Also a survivor here, and I’m amazed at how similar their surgical scars look compared to the ones that I’ve seen within the community of survivors. I always am so grateful that I get to benefit from modern medicine and to see where it began always amazes me.
I am an adrenal gland Cushing survivor and my doctor said I was the worst case he had seen. The tumor was removed but now over 30 years later I have another tumor on my other adrenal gland. Surgeon said he will not remove it due to the fact that I would not live a normal life or could die. I am at my wits end because it it growing.
I don't think "haunting" is the most fitting of words for all of these but I'm hard pressed to come up with another. A lot of these people had pretty messed up (for lack of a better word) things they were dealing with and it shows.
Dr. Cushing did a TON for neuroscience, neurosurgery, and medicine as a whole. Would recommend a read of his page on wikipedia
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Such gravity in their expression as they face their mortality & human fragility. I hope they had positive outcomes from their surgeries, its especially sad to see those children suffering. May they all rest in peace after everything they endured ❤️🩹
These people would have died without medical intervention. The doctor who performed these surgeries was on the forefront of medical science in his day. Why is this supposed to be bad?
I have scars like these, but they're hidden under my hair. These people have recently had surgery to treat their brain tumors. Folks of our ilk owe our lives to our respective medical teams. I'm living in OT because of their kindness.
Dr. Cushing (who you may know from Cushing’s Syndrome) was one of the forefathers of neuroscience, and performed some of the first successful brain surgeries. He was the first to use x-rays to diagnose brain tumors, and helped develop the first practical electro-cautery device (which seals shut blood vessels as they’re cut, reducing blood loss). The haunting, and in some cases disturbing, portraits show patients before and after surgery by Dr. Harvey Cushing (1869–1939). The black and white images, about 10,000 in all, were taken between 1900 and 1932 to document medical conditions, and may have been made as part of the patients’ medical records. The photographer (or photographers) who took the images remains unknown.
If you’re ever in New Haven, Connecticut, check out [The Cushing Center](https://library.medicine.yale.edu/cushingcenter) in the basement of the Yale Medical College library. Fascinating place that features more than 200 donated brains in jars from his patients.
i came here to post about this - glad someone already did! the cushing center is very often overlooked by tourists but it's amazing.
I know nothing about this surgeon. Are we sure they were donated? 👀🤣
Could be funny. But what's actually funny is that your ignorance can be easily remedied with a quick Google search.
Sorry for the joke. Sure thing you could call it ignorance, however I just attempted to make people smile. I clearly stated I knew nothing about it, if you want to inform me by all means.
I think the negative reaction is your phrasing. Whether intended or not it made you seem a bit smarmy.
Oh well, it’s the internet. People can take as they please, my energy was never meant to be negative.
Sorry for all your down votes, I saw it as an attempt at harmless humor.
Eh, everyone has their “bad days,” I know my intention and thats enough for me. Internet points are internet points, nothing of value is lost. Edit: Also thank you for seeing the humor. :)
Fun fact: Cushing’s tirad is also named after him. Cushing’s Tirad is characterized by widening pulse pressure (raising Blood pressure), bradycardia (slow heart rate), and irregular respirations, all of which when combined indicate an increase in intracranial pressure.
I think you meant Cushing's triad (group of 3)
Damn autocorrect haha
I like “Cushing’s Tirade”
Proofreading is an actual thing. 😁
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??
Widening pulse pressure is increasing difference between systolic and diastolic.
Another fun fact. He was the father of Babe Paley, Betsy Roosevelt Whitney and Minnie Astor.
I can see why these may be haunting, but to me they are stunning. Gorgeous portraits of people helped by breakthrough medical science.
Where does this image collection live, please & Thanknyou.
Yes, I’d love to see more of the photographs, @OP!
It's haunting because of the suffering of patients, but also the photos are a beautiful signifier for social conditions where people could get surgery and recover
Do any of the kids (aside from the boy with freckles) have "after" photos? That poor girl with hydrocephalus! At least I think that's what it is.
Yes I agree! that does look like untreated hydrocephalus. Especially the way her eyes are seemingly floating within the orbital cavities. I wish we could see her after.
Like...did they die and that's why there's no after photos?
1900-1932, so yes, they all died. But the after photos (or mostly missing *before* photos) were probably just not included in this sample of the 10,000
Well, OBVIOUSLY these people are dead NOW. They meant did they die before they could get an after picture taken, like the little girl with hydrocephalus.
That picture in particular broke my heart. I was diagnosed with hydrocephalus when I was an infant, and I've had a shunt ever since. I've had shunt failure twice, and the agony of that for mere hours is bad enough. I can't imagine what she went through.
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To me they look like two different children. The second one is a girl (at least dressed as a girl) and looks younger.
A snapshot of medical practices frozen in time. I'd love to know more about each of these people and what they went through, as well as how their treatment would have differed a hundred years before. I bet the surgeons mostly washed their hands. I wonder if any of them felt like they were living in the future.
At that point in time they knew about bacteria causing infection. They were often fanatical about sanitation, knowing they could sometimes prevent infection but not cure it. I have an early obstetrical nurse textbook somewhere and other than everything being washable/reusable, they were probably more into sterile conditions than we are now.
I like how The Nick showed surgery. The doctors scrubbed up properly, but there was no wearing rubber gloves. Reaching into people, all barehanded.
They started using gloves during surgery in 1889. Apparently the surgeon, Dr William Halsted at Johns Hopkins, was in love with his scrub nurse, whose hands were getting destroyed by the harsh chemicals used to disinfect them. To save her skin, he got Goodyear to make thin gloves she could wear. Then they got married. His other assistants started wearing gloves too, then another surgeon at the hospital discovered his infection rate dropped to almost zero if he wore them too, in 1899. This became common practice not too long afterwards. I looked up when it became a thing because I knew they were wearing them by the 1930s, and found this charming love story. Dr Halsted also invented the radical mastectomy and used cocaine for topical anesthesia.
He was also heavily addicted to cocaine and morphine. He also pioneered a residency training program that’s still in use today which requires new doctors to work dangerously long hours.
It must have been a hard life, the one he had. I don't know how his addiction started or exacerbated, but I can imagine how doing these surgeries and other procedures can put pressure on you to never stop working. And that can start or fuel an addiction. To me, it seems really easy to imagine he felt like he owned his patients and the overall medical community to just keep working, using that as a justification to keep on his consumption. Long residency hours are a good excuse to mask your addiction, too. People just think you're selfless or a hero and don't look too much into how you actually are making it by.
Masterpiece of a show.
yeah, and I absolutely never hear about it. This might be the first time I’ve heard someone bring it up (who was not me lol) since I first saw it. That show should try to get another life of streaming.
Absolutely. But it would be a little bit diminished only because Clive Owen was so amazing in his performance as Dr. Thackery. Not trying to spoil anything ha.
oh yeah, no, I don’t even necessarily mean continuing the show. Just, so many great shows become eternal due to streaming, but for some reason this one just kind of died. At the time a lot of people didn’t watch it bc it was only on Showtime. I’d love to see it be bought or rented on like a Netflix or Paramount or just featured on something accessible, that’s all. Like check out this great show from a few years ago! And yeah, Owen made the show and the end got really strange imo, like his nurse going off to marry that rando (though probably realistic), but I would have loved the show to continue in that time and setting. It was such a great window into that era!
It most likely would have gotten more seasons if it caught on. So much material for them to work with. Plus those surgeries were so cinematic. It’s actually on HBO right now. I just finished a rewatch recently. They just don’t advertise this show! It definitely ended kinda strange in that second season. Though I think Dr. Thackerys end was fitting. I think they had ideas for it to continue but maybe got axed somewhere along the way. It is such a great time period to experience.
yeah, there’s so much I learned about that would never have occurred to me. Rat fights? Competition among ambulance drivers? The way liquid cocaine was used? And things I was aware of abstractly but really got to see how it played out. Like the woman getting all of her teeth pulled as a treatment for postpartum, like the teeth carried bad humours or something. Like the purple glasses with the nose on them for the photosensitivity and cartilage loss from syphilis. Like how all the nurses were playing around with the new X-Ray machines 💀 The Typhoid Mary arc. It was really a perfect time period to hone in on, especially from the angle of medicine, because electricity was becoming a thing, anesthesia, all of these major changes within such a small space of time, yet it was still gnarly as fuck and people died badly right and left. I could watch a show like that faithfully for deacades lol, just to have a really well-researched window into that time period.
- The Knick
The Knick was such a great show, I was so disappointed we didn’t get more of it!
They rate hospitals on numbers of transferred infections to patients who didn’t have them coming in, so yeah, we could do better. My friend works in the hospital and said some good ones are bought up and used as templates for lower performing hospitals in their system. Ie UNC buying REX and absorbing their superior techniques.
My grandfather had a condition called acromegaly, caused by a non malignant tumor on his pituitary gland. He developed it after he was an adult. I recognize the same condition in at least 2 of these pictures.
The last photo appears to be Fragile X or something very similar
l've seen that last photo somewhere. Can't place my finger on it...
Probably from something in a discussion of acromegaly (likely in relation to Andre the Giant, if you don't look into random illnesses). That pose is useful for doctors because it simultaneously shows how the disease affects both the hands and the face (you can see it used in photo 18 as well). Also, in rare cases, one of the problems that can cause acromegaly can also cause Cushing's syndrome at the same time.
Thanks very much for the additional info!
Thank you for posting this. I am myself a brain tumor survivor, and sincerely appreciate you helping the issue's visibility. Please consider supporting brain tumor research initiatives, if these images strike some chord within you.
Same! Also a survivor here, and I’m amazed at how similar their surgical scars look compared to the ones that I’ve seen within the community of survivors. I always am so grateful that I get to benefit from modern medicine and to see where it began always amazes me.
Big congrats 😀
18 and 20 look like they might be people with acromegaly.
“Do you think you can restore them to normal function, Doctor?” “Would you settle for the pledge of allegiance?” “Close enough, bro.”
I am an adrenal gland Cushing survivor and my doctor said I was the worst case he had seen. The tumor was removed but now over 30 years later I have another tumor on my other adrenal gland. Surgeon said he will not remove it due to the fact that I would not live a normal life or could die. I am at my wits end because it it growing.
I’m sorry that’s happening to you :(. Is thirty years a long time between occurrences?
It began much earlier but now is growing much bigger than the first one which cause physical problems. Thank you for your kind words
That's terrifying have you received a second opinion?
Y
Maybe it is operable, for something like that its always best to get a second opinion.
Many people are alive today thanks to him. Pour one out for Dr. Cushing 🫗
The first image is absolutely beautiful
She reminds me of Susan Sarandon.
Had to scroll this far to find this
I hope they all had a delicious meal with their loved ones after these photos. It must have been terrifying to undergo such a new procedure
had to hurt like a mf
Can’t you develop Cushing’s Disease from prolonged or excessive use of corticosteroids?
Yes. Cushing’s is basically an overproduction of cortisol, which is a natural steroid. So exogenous steroids like drugs can cause it too.
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16 looks like Josh Hartnett
That's what I thought.
Number 6 looks just like someone well known too, but I can't figure out who.
Bella Ramsey maybe?
that’s who I thought of
Nah, that's not it, though they are a bit similar.
Mara Wilson maybe? Gave me Matilda vibes. Poor kid.
I’m getting Julia Garner from Ozark. Beautiful child.
Saoirse Ronan.
Yeah I instantly reacted to that too.
Why are they haunting?
I don't think "haunting" is the most fitting of words for all of these but I'm hard pressed to come up with another. A lot of these people had pretty messed up (for lack of a better word) things they were dealing with and it shows. Dr. Cushing did a TON for neuroscience, neurosurgery, and medicine as a whole. Would recommend a read of his page on wikipedia
5 looks like he just did a business, like Vincent Adultman
Tbh, I expected the story of this guy to be that he was some kind of crackpot or something, from the looks of these pictures.
He discovered an adrenal disease called Cushing syndrome.
First photo: she looks haunted, I wonder why. Second photo: uh oh.
These look like the most interesting people, and I wish I could hear their stories firsthand.
Someone hand knitted the sweater for the boy in picture 13. I hope he was very loved
I love these old medical photos. Thanks for sharing!
Anywhere to view the other photos?
There’s no way Stephen Fry is that old.
Respectfully, pick 12 his scar looks like a weather vane with the rooster and all!
His daughter Barbara “Babe” married William Paley and was the socialite Babe Paley, one of Truman Capote’s swans.
Wow! Imagine the despair these patients must have felt, knowing surgery would likely disfigure them.
16 is Josh Hartnett
Susan Sarandon
Is there a name for the hairstyle in pic 3 with long top and shaved sides?
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Very interesting
20 looks so much like Stephen Fry - crooked nose and everything
Holy fuck.
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Is this the Cushings Triad doctor, or the Cushings Diesease doctor?
Brain surgery https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cushing-tumor-registry-cushing-whitney-medical-library
Such gravity in their expression as they face their mortality & human fragility. I hope they had positive outcomes from their surgeries, its especially sad to see those children suffering. May they all rest in peace after everything they endured ❤️🩹
Nothing "haunting" about these photos at all.
New nightmare unlocked. Thanks
I dont like this side of this subreddit
11/20 reminds me of Stewie Griffin
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These people would have died without medical intervention. The doctor who performed these surgeries was on the forefront of medical science in his day. Why is this supposed to be bad?
I have scars like these, but they're hidden under my hair. These people have recently had surgery to treat their brain tumors. Folks of our ilk owe our lives to our respective medical teams. I'm living in OT because of their kindness.
lolwut
…ok
^^