User:Monicavyle/sandbox

Specialization in obstetric and gynecologic surgery

Jones interest in obstetrics and gynecology began when as a teacher, she used medical works to aid in teaching her students. In 1862, she later attended New York Hygeio-Therapeutic College where her interest in obstetrics and gynecology had provided her with an initiative to further her studies in the field of medicine. Jones’ experience with patients with medical related issues to gynecology had laid her foundation with her strong interest in her field of work that had led her to be one of the leading surgeons in treatment of the female reproductive system. Jones also played an important role in advocating for the field of gynecology in the late 19th century as it became a medical practice that was seen as separate from the general practice of medicine. As an individual who was advocating for the field of gynecology in its early years, Jones had to oppose the norm to find methods of finding opportunities of apprenticeship or other ways to be part of surgery as the field of surgery was often seen as a male dominated field.

When she completed her studies in 1875, she returned to Brooklyn to a private practice and also worked at Woman's Hospital of Brooklyn. Working at the hospital, Jones was able to perform surgery and became skilled and honed those skills to eventually open up her own private practice. During her time spent at her own practice, she encountered many different gynecologically related problems in women such as fibroid tumors and infected tubes and appendages, that pushed her to meet with Dr. Carl Heitzman to serve as a mentor as he was specialized in pathology. This was in hopes of providing Jones additional research in gynecology. In addition to her practice, her time spent in New York had also allowed her to attend Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital. Jones had taken a gynecology course from Benjamin Franklin Dawson who was affiliated with the creation of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children to which she had also published her first work. Jones had taken the opportunity in New York to research and study the field of gynecology as Dawson was well known in the community of gynecology. In 1882, Jones became chief medical officer of Woman's Hospital of Brooklyn. Jones specialized in the treatment of complicated diseases of the women's reproductive system. Additionally, she studied the pathology of laboratory specimens for diseases she treated. During Jones’ time at the Woman’s Hospital of Brooklyn, she had expanded her medical experience when she performed 300 laparotomies in addition to observational experience at the Women’s Hospital and Bellevue along with many other hospitals she frequented in New York. Jones’ skills in networking with male had allowed her to work beside of very well-known surgeons at the time such as W. Gill Wylie, C.C. Lee, Henry Clark Coe, Arthur M. Jacobus, and Robert Tuttle Morris. Jones did not only research and had hands-on experience with obstetrics and gynecology, she had also had much of her works related to her specialization in obstetrics and gynecology published following her collaborative works with Lawson Tait in 1884. During her time with Lawson Tait, Jones spent much of her time networking with male colleagues and eventually was able to publish her first clinical case report, ”A Case of Tait’s Operation”, in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children that same year she met Tait. Jones had published this case report in hopes of getting her name known in the public by using Tait’s name in the title as a tribute to her support for his work and that he was often associated with the field of gynecology. Jones published over fifty medical articles and was an associate editor of the American Journal of Surgery and Gynecology, and the Woman's Medical Journal.

In 1888, Jones removed the uterus and a 17-pound tumor from a living patient. The patient recovered within several weeks making Jones the first American physician to perform a successful total hysterectomy for an uterine myoma (uterine fibroid tumor). Jones success in performing a total hysterectomy had allowed her to gain recognition when presented at the New York Pathological Society. In addition, her recognition extended out to various medical journals.

Beginning in the 1890s, Jones shifted her focus with regard to gynecological work that focused more on laboratory work with regard to pathology and was able to use this knowledge in conjunction with diagnosis related to gynecological problems. In the following two decades, surgery was involved with utilizing microscopes as a way to diagnose patients. Jones along with the individuals whom she worked with were very much involved in the change of the way medicine was approached towards diagnoses following with surgical procedures in the clinical setting.

Jones’ overall medical experience over the 19th century had highlighted the new innovations such as increasing knowledge in medicine along with the inclusion of laboratory work to which she had taken advantage of in her specialization in obstetrics and gynecology. Through her experiences, she had proven herself to be considered at one of the pioneers in gynecological surgery that had shifted the preconceived notions that men were the only individuals involved in the field of surgery. Her efforts had not own shown through her experience but also many of her published works that highlighted her experience in surgical techniques along with what goes on in the operating rooms as the attending surgeon.