Across The Fence - The Formidable Dr. Goodfellow: Frontier Surgeon

On May 3, 1887 the Sonora earthquake hit the village of Bavispe, Mexico. The magnitude 7.6 quake leveled the adobe buildings of Bavispe and killed 42 of the village's 700 inhabitants. The violent quake was felt for more that 200 miles from its epicenter near the Arizona/Mexico border. Dr. George Emory Goodfellow, then practicing medicine in Tombstone, Arizona, loaded a wagon with medical supplies and rode the 90 miles from Tombstone to Bavispe to aid those injured in the quake. In recognition for his generous service, (Dr. Goodfellow never charged for helping the less fortunate or those injured while helping others) the people of the village christened him El Doctor Santo-T he Sainted Doctor-and the president of Mexico rewarded the good doctor with a red roan horse named El Rosillo and a silver medal that had belonged to Emperor Maximilian.

In a similar humanitarian gesture, Dr. Goodfellow performed a series of reconstructive surgeries on one George W. Parsons. A falling balcony struck Mr. Parsons during the devastating Tombstone fire of June 1881. Parsons had been attempting to tear down the balcony in order to halt the spread of the fire when a splintered piece of lumber fell and tore off Parsons' nose and upper lip. Dr. Goodfellow designed a wire frame over which he grafted successive layers of cartilage and flesh and eventually restored Mr. Parsons' features to their pre-injury appearance. For his services Dr. Goodfellow refused payment, since Parsons had been injured while helping others.

Although magnanimous in such unfortunate situations, Dr. Goodfellow could well afford his generosity. During the years that he served as medical doctor, surgeon and coroner for the city of Tombstone, Arizona from 1880 to 1889, Cochise County reimbursed him at the rate of $8,000 to $12,000 per year, the equivalent of $200,000 to $300,000 in today's dollars.

During Dr. Goodfellow's tenure in Tombstone he became the United States' leading expert in the treatment of bullet wounds, especially those wounds referred to as "gut-shot." On July 2, 1881, assassin Charles J. Guiteau shot President James Garfield. Sixteen doctors were summoned in an attempt to save the president's life. Each of the 16 doctors inserted their unsterilized fingers and surgical instruments into the wound as they probed for the paths of the bullets in an effort to extract the lead. President Garfield did not survive and it is largely agreed that his death was significantly due to a massive infection. Two days later, on July 4th a Tombstone miner was shot with a Colt 32-caliber revolver resulting in wounds similar to those suffered by President Garfield. Nine days after the miner had been shot, Dr. Goodfellow, who advocated opening the abdominal cavity to repair gunshot wounds and practiced 'antisepsis surgery' using diluted carbolic acid, performed the first laparotomy (incising the abdominal wall to access the abdominal cavity) to treat a gut-shot victim.

Utilizing Dr. Joseph Lister's 1865 technique of sterilizing hands, instruments, sponges and the areas around the wound, Dr. Goodfellow extracted and repaired the damaged intestines, cleaned the infected flesh and abdominal cavity, reinserted the intestines and closed the incision with silk thread. Unlike President Garfield, the miner survived.

When Dr. Goodfellow and his wife Katherine arrived in Tombstone, and the doctor opened his medical practice in 1880, there were already 12 doctors in the silver mining boomtown of 2,000 people. However, only he and three others had attended medical school. Goodfellow established his office above the Crystal Palace Saloon, sharing the upper floor of this most luxurious saloon in the west with the offices of Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp and Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, two lawmen who would always be at odds over the law enforcement of Tombstone.

With his office above the saloon, when not busy with patients, Dr. Goodfellow would descend the outside stairway from his office to the saloon where much of his time was spent gambling, drinking and enjoying the company of the free spirited ladies who provided ornamentation to the lush décor and companionship to the Palace customers.

At that time, Tombstone was a wild and violent town that provided many of Dr. Goodfellow's patients. It has been said that Dr. Goodfellow treated more gunshot victims than any other civilian doctor before him. The doctor himself described the violent town of Tombstone as the "condensation of wickedness." This condensation of wickedness provided Dr. Goodfellow with an abundance of gunshot victims on which to develop and perfect his surgical skills and gut-shot treatment expertise.

For every old west dime novel's romanticized account of famous gunfights that depict a deadeye shootist placing a bullet through the heart of his assailant, there were in actuality dozens of random gunfights involving evil minded men who drew a gun as readily as they drew a breath. "Aim for the body" might well have been the axiom of the time for a gut shot enemy was certain to die a slow and painful death and provided a morbid sense of revenge.

Dr. Goodfellow would travel for miles to treat outlaw or lawman, miners, ranchers, merchants and citizens. His dedication to his profession and compassion for those who suffered was legend. On more than one occasion he risked his own life to enter collapsed mines and rescue those who were injured or trapped.

Goodfellow's time in Tombstone coincided with that time when Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp, along with Doc Holliday, confronted the Clantons and McLaurys at the OK Corral. Dr. Goodfellow was present at the gunfight where Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury were killed. As he was dying, Billy Clanton begged for his boots to be removed before he died, Dr. Goodfellow obliged his dying request. Virgil Earp was shot through the calf and Morgan was wounded across both shoulder blades, Dr. Goodfellow treated both of them.

As coroner, Dr. Goodfellow's testimony both as an eyewitness and an expert on gunshot wounds provided significant support for the defense of the Earp brothers and the judge ruled that the lawmen had acted in self-defense.

In the aftermath of that gun battle, Virgil Earp was ambushed and shot in the back and arm with a shotgun blast. The attack was not fatal but Dr. Goodfellow had to remove about three inches of shattered bone in Virgil's arm. Virgil had refused Dr. Goodfellow's recommendation that the arm should be amputated. Though the arm was saved, the surgery resulted in a permanent loss of its use.

Later, in a continuation of violence, Morgan Earp was shot in the back while playing pool. The bullet passed near Morgan's spine, went through his body and lodged in the thigh of George Berry, a mining foreman who had been standing nearby. Morgan was unable to stand and was laid on a lounging sofa where Dr. Goodfellow determined that the wound was fatal. Morgan died within the hour. His autopsy revealed that the spine had been damaged and major arteries had been severed.

Being County Coroner, Goodfellow often prepared the death certificates that were required. In the completion of these documents he revealed at times his wry sense of humor. On one occasion one of Tombstone's gamblers was shot and killed over a card game dispute. Dr. Goodfellow included in the official report that he had properly conducted the required procedure and had "...found the body full of lead, but too badly punctured to hold whiskey."

On another occasion, one John Heath was the mastermind behind a robbery that resulted in the death of four innocent victims, and also a pregnant woman and her unborn child. Heath had planned the robbery but did not participate in the actual event and so the judge could only sentence him to life in prison, the other five of the gang were sentenced to hang. Of course the good citizens of Tombstone were outraged and organized a special necktie party for Mr. Heath. In not so subtle support of the vigilante action Coroner Goodfellow wrote that Heath had succumbed to "...emphysema of the lungs which might have been, and probably was, caused by strangulation, self-inflicted or otherwise..."

Dr. Goodfellow's wife died in 1891 and the doctor, along with his daughter Edith, relocated to Tucson, Arizona where he set up a medical practice that lasted until 1896, when he relocated to California. In 1898 he was instrumental in negotiating the surrender of Spain after the Battle of San Juan Hill, when he met with General William Shafter and Spanish General Jose Toral, a feat that Goodfellow attributed in part to a bottle of medicinal whiskey that fostered a "convivial atmosphere to the conference."

In 1899 Goodfellow moved to San Francisco, set up his medical practice and remarried. His practice continued until the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 destroyed his office, his home and all of his records and manuscripts. Financially ruined, he relocated to Guaymas, Mexico as Chief Surgeon for the Southern Pacific Railroad, where he died in 1910. He was only 55 years of age. His obituary sites his cause of death as nervous breakdown.

Dr. George Emory Goodfellow is recognized as the United States' first trauma surgeon, his treatment of abdominal penetrating trauma remains today as the standard procedure for such cases.

M. Timothy Nolting is an award winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. To contact Tim, email: [email protected]