Charles Leale

Charles Augustus Leale was an American surgeon, born in New York City in 1842 and dying in 1932. He served as a surgeon in the Union Army during the Civil War and, in April 1865, was the first doctor to reach the presidential box at Ford's Theatre after John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln. Leale found the head wound, removed a blood clot to ease the president's breathing, gave artificial respiration, and judged the wound mortal. He directed that Lincoln be carried across the street to the Petersen House rather than risk a carriage ride, and stayed with him through the night. After leaving the army he studied Asiatic cholera in Europe, practiced privately in New York City and took part in charitable medical work until retiring in 1928.