Evan O'Neill Kane

Who was Evan O'Neill Kane?

Evan O'Neill Kane was a surgeon working in Pennsylvania, United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and a member of a notable Pennsylvanian family. Several other members of his family were also surgeons or physicians and their family home, Anoatok, is now a listed building.

He is most well known for the remarkable feat of removing his own appendix under local anaesthetic in 1921 at the age of 60. He operated on himself again at the age of 70 to repair a hernia. In many ways Kane was idiosyncratic in his practices, which included the tattooing of his patients. Kane was again in the public eye when he gave evidence at the sensational trial of his son for murder.

Kane was one of the founding members of the Kane Summit Hospital and became chief surgeon there. A large part of Kane's work was in railway surgery. In this field he contributed a number of innovations in procedures and equipment. These included asbestos bandages, mica windows for brain surgery, and multiple site hypodermoclysis.