The caning of senator Charles Sumner: A review of his injuries and prolonged recovery.
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2025-11
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Charles Sumner was an outspoken abolitionist and Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts from 1851 to 1874. In 1856, at the height of the national debate about slavery before the Civil War, Sumner was assaulted in the Senate chamber by a Democratic congressman from South Carolina. Preston Brooks attacked Sumner by striking him on the head and neck over 30 times using his walking cane as a weapon. After the attack, Sumner lost consciousness and was carried out of the Senate chamber. Though he recovered over the week following the attack, Sumner did not return full-time to his Senate seat until December 1859 due to the sequelae of his injuries. Historians have debated the cause of Sumner's prolonged disability, with several suggesting that he was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. Although diagnosis cannot be made definitively, the details of Brooks' assault and Sumner's subsequent medical history suggest that Sumner's documented symptoms during his three-year recovery were likely the result of a traumatic brain injury.
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Beck, Evan J, Theodore N Pappas and Jordan M Komisarow (2025). The caning of senator Charles Sumner: A review of his injuries and prolonged recovery. Journal of medical biography. p. 9677720251397464. 10.1177/09677720251397464 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/33731.
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Theodore N. Pappas
RESEARCH: We have a long interest in understanding the importance of the volume-quality relationship for surgeons. In addition, we have done extensive work studying the impact of surgical trainees on the outcomes for patients. Our division is trying to fully understand the importance of robotic surgery to the future of cancer surgery.
CLINICAL: Our team has an extensive experience in aggressive surgical approaches to pancreatic cancer, including Whipple resection, subtotal pancreatectomy, laparoscopic and open pancreatic tail resection, laparoscopic/robotic pancreaticoduodenectomy, ablative techniques for the pancreas, and peripancreatic vascular resection. When clinically indicated, we employ less extensive pancreatic and duodenal operations, such as ampullary resection, duodenal resection, sphinceroplasty, and benign tumor enucleation.
We take care of every variety of complicated abdominal wall and diaphragmatic hernias, including flank hernias, paraesophageal hernias, recurrent abdominal wall hernias, abdominal mesh infections, and hernias associated with colostomies.
Other areas of interest include stomach surgery (for ulcer disease or cancer), treatment of complications of pancreatitis, routine and complicated gall bladder disease, and inguinal hernia repair.
Jordan Komisarow
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