Marie K. Formad

Marie K. Formad (1860 – February 21, 1944) was a Russian Empire-born American physician based in Philadelphia.

Marie K. Formad
Born1860
Russia
DiedFebruary 21, 1944
Philadelphia
OccupationPhysician

Early life

Formad was born in Russia. She moved to the United States in 1883.[1] Her older brother (sometimes mistakenly referred to as her father) Henry F. Formad was a pathology professor on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, and served as Coroner's Physician in Philadelphia.[2] Another brother, Robert Julius Formad, was also a pathologist, an expert on veterinary oncology.[3]

Marie Formad graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1886,[4] with a thesis titled "Some Notes on Criminal Abortion".[2]

Career

Formad was elected to the post of vaccine physician for Philadelphia's Eleventh District in 1887.[5] She worked for 52 years at Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, as a teaching surgeon, gynecologist, and pathologist.[6][7][8] She was the first woman member of the Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia.[9] With Calista V. Luther and two other women doctors, she ran an evening dispensary, the Medical Aid Society for Self-Supporting Women, to treat working women at a more convenient time than other clinics.[10] She retired in 1938.[4]

During World War I, Formad accepted a commission as a surgeon in the French army in 1917.[11] She served fourteen months, from January 1918 to March 1919, in a Women's Overseas Hospital (WOH) unit in France.[12][13] She directed and performed surgery a 125-bed refugee hospital at Labouheyre,[14] supported by the National Woman Suffrage Association,[15] working alongside doctors Laura E. Hunt[16] and Mabel Seagrave.[17] The hospital grew under Formad's direction, and served about 10,000 refugees during its existence;[18] two of the American nurses at Labouheyre, Winifred Warder and Eva Emmons, died from influenza there.[19] After the armistice, Formad went to Nancy to work as a surgeon caring for repatriating French civilians.[20][21][22] She received the Medaille d'honneur from the French government for her wartime service.[23]

Personal life

Marie Formad cared for her older brother Henry in his last months; he died in 1892.[24][25] She died in 1944, aged 83 years, in Philadelphia.[4] She left her estate mainly to her two nieces, Marie and Charlotte.[26]

References
  1. "Dr. Formad's Rites Set for Tomorrow". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1944-02-24. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Fulton, R. E. (2017-02-07). ""Buried with Doctor's Certificate": Reading the Uses and Abuses of Bodies in a Medical School Thesis". Nursing Clio. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  3. Formad, Robert Julius; Agriculture, United States Department of (1926). Tumors of Domestic Animals. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  4. "DR. MARIE K. FORMAD; Russian Immigrant, Physician in Philadelphia 52 Years". The New York Times. 1944-02-24. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  5. "Divided Sanitarians". Philadelphia Inquirer. February 9, 1887. p. 2.
  6. "Clinical Instructors" The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania 53rd Annual Commencement, 1902-1903.
  7. "Sly Thief Routed by Woman Doctor". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1928-04-14. p. 2. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Dr. Marie K. Formad Ill". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1932-05-08. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. History, Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia.
  10. Morantz-Sanchez, Regina (2005-10-12). Sympathy and Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-8078-7608-4.
  11. "Women Surgeons to France". The La Crosse Tribune. 1917-10-29. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Women Surgeons to Go to France". Arizona Republic. 1917-10-05. p. 30. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Woman Doctor Home from War". The News Journal. 1919-04-01. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  14. Curry, Anne Hirst (June 22, 1918). "The Back Yard of the War". The Woman Citizen. 3: 68.
  15. Noble, Nellie S. (February 1921). "The Work of Women Physicians During the War". Journal of the Iowa State Medical Society. 11: 45 – via Internet Archive.
  16. "12 Nurses Caught in Thick of Battle". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1918-04-14. p. 27. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "American Women Physicians in World War I: Service in the War". American Medical Women's Association. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  18. "The untold story of women who risked their lives to do good -- and get their rights" CNN (August 16, 2020).
  19. "The Women Doctors of World War I: A Q&A with Kate Clarke Lemay About Wartime Service and Suffrage". Women at the Center. 2020-05-07. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  20. Blackwell, Alice Stone (May 3, 1919). "With the W. O. H. at Nancy". The Woman Citizen. 3: 1046.
  21. Curry, Anne Hirst (September 14, 1918). "Repatriate Mothers of France". The Woman Citizen. 3: 310–311.
  22. "U. S. Women Doctors Still Busy at Rheims". New-York Tribune. 1919-05-19. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. "Why Not a Ballot?". The Chickasha Daily Express. 1919-07-07. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. "Dr. Formad Dead". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1892-06-06. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. "Necrology: Henri F. Formad". Journal of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Archives. 13: 447–448. April 1892.
  26. "2 Nieces to Share $106,000 Left by Dr. Marie Formad". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1944-03-02. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.