Maude Abbott, International Authority on Heart Disease
Name: Maude Abbott
Birth Date: March 18, 1869 – September 2,1940
Job Functions: Medical Doctor & Curator
Fields: Medicine
Known For: Heart Disease Specialist
Maude Abbott and her sister Alice were raised by their maternal grandmother after their mother died from tuberculosis and their father abandoned them. Their grandmother legally adopted them at the age of 62 and gave her granddaughters her surname. In June 1885, Maude received a scholarship to attend McGill University, which recently started to admit girls. In fact, Maude Abbott was a part of the third class of women to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Donalda Department for Women at McGill, so the women were segregated. She also pursued a teaching diploma from McGill Normal school at the same time.
Five years later in 1890, Maude Abbott earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree. She excelled while pursuing her degree, and was awarded the prestigious Lord Stanley Gold Medal. Because she achieved this distinction, she was asked to be her class valedictorian. Maude enjoyed her time at McGill so it seemed the likely choice for her to pursue a medical degree. Despite her stellar performance at McGill, the powers that be declined her application because she was a woman.
Maude Abbott’s Petition for Women to Attend McGill’s School of Medicine
Not accepting the decision, she petitioned for McGill to open its medical school doors to women, and went as far as to raise the funds for them to attend.
Although she had the support of the media, and leading men and women in Montreal, McGill refused to open its doors to women who wanted to take medical courses. Maude Abbott had no choice but to pursue her medical degree at the Faculty of Medicine at Bishop’s College in Montreal. Bishop’s College wanted to upstage McGill, so it offered to admit Maude who accepted. Not surprisingly, she was the only woman in her class. Once again, Maude Abbott achieved academic excellence, graduated with honors in June 1894, four years after entering medical school, winning two prestigious awards – the Senior Anatomy Prize and the Chancellor's Prize.
Travel to Europe for more Medical Training
Maude Abbott wanted more medical training, so along with her sister, Alice – who was suffering from a mental illness – the two traveled to Europe. With a letter of introduction from Victor Horsley, the founder of neurosurgery, Maude got access to many medical establishments. She had access to the London School for Medicine, was able to view surgeries performed by Vincenz Czerny in Germany. Maude studied in Switzerland, but it was impacted because Alice, who had suffered a breakdown needed care.
When Alice’s care became too much for her, she had her sister admitted to the Gartnavel Royal Asylum in Glasgow in January 1897. The two returned to Canada in September of that year and it was the last time that Alice received institutional care – she was cared for in the family home after that.
Opening a Practice and Working for McGill
Maude Abbott is a courageous woman, and in the summer of 1898 she opened her own doctor’s office in Montreal, where she treated women and children. And during that summer she was appointed as the Assistant Curator of the Medical Museum of McGill University. The specimen at the Museum had never been organized so Maude visited medical museums in America to determine how best to classify them.
While she was visiting Baltimore, she met world renowned, Canadian physician and educator, Dr William Osler, who encouraged her to specialize in congenital heart disease. In 1901, Maude was appointed Curator and had to reduce her medical practice. She did such a stellar job in her role as curator, that in 1904 when William Osler visited, he was so impressed that he wrote to the Dean of Medicine saying that Maude’s work was the best he had seen at McGill to date, and that the museum was now the best in North America and Britain.
Opportunity of a Lifetime
In 1905, Osler invited Maude to write a chapter on congenital cardiac disease for his textbook, Systems of Modern Medicine (A System of Medicine, Volume 1
). Completed in 1907, this work gave her worldwide authority on the subject. Now that Maude Abbott had received international acclaim, in 1910, McGill awarded her an honorary medical degree, and appointed her to its academic staff. In 1925 she was appointed Assistant Professor, but was never promoted beyond this rank despite her continued stellar performance. In 1936, she published Atlas of Congenital Cardiac Disease
.
Other institutions recognized and respected Maude Abbott’s accomplishments far more than McGill University, but she didn’t relocate because she refused to leave Alice whom she cared for, for 40 years. On one occasion Maude took a leave of absence from McGill and went to the Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia where she worked for two years. Although she wanted to work beyond 65 years, McGill forced her to retire. She died from a brain hemorrhage on September 2, 1940. At the time she died, she was recognized as a top cardiologist and the founder of the International Association of Medical Museums.
During her career, “Dr. Abbott published over 140 papers and books and delivered countless lectures.” When the first women graduated from McGill Medical School in 1922, Maude Abbott hosted a celebratory tea party at the Ritz in their honor.
In 1943, after her death, the famous Mexican painter, Diego Rivera, recognized Maude Abbot by paying her one of the greatest homage – he included her, the only woman and Canadian in a mural of 50 of the most important heart specialists in the world.
Lessons from Maude Abbott
- Fight and stand up for what you believe in.
- Work around obstacles to get what you need.
- Be the best in your field.
- Show your work so others may learn from you.
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Image Credit: British Medical Journal http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1322258/