Lobotomies At Missouri State Hospital #2:
Experimental Brain Surgeries to Make Better Patients and Patients Better.
Dr. Walter Freeman
The Lobotomist
In 1936 with the help of Dr. James Watts, Dr. Walter Freeman conducted the first lobotomy in the United States. Within two months the duo had lobotomized 20 patients and by 1942 they had performed over 200 prefrontal lobotomies.
Freeman experimented with new ways to perform the surgeries and in 1946 performed the first transorbital or "ice pick" lobotomy on Sallie Ellen Ianesco, a 29 year old housewife and mother.
This transorbital lobotomy did not require a neurosurgeon and could be performed outside of an operating room without the use of anesthesia by using electroconvulsive therapy to induce seizure. These transorbital lobotomies could easily be performed in state mental hospitals throughout the United States that were overpopulated and understaffed.
On July 8, 1949 Walter Freeman performed his transorbital lobotomy on 10 patients in three hours at the Missouri State Hospital #2. The St . Joseph Gazette reported "the effects of the operation would be followed closely by staff. If successful, the institution would undertake a program of neurosurgery. Such a program would mean many patients could be dismissed from the hospital to return to their communities to lead normal lives."
