Claudia Potter

Claudia Potter (1881–1970) was the first female anesthesiologist in the United States, as well as the first physician in Texas to use gas anesthesia. She graduated from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1904. She then did postgraduate work at the Mayo Clinic, served an internship at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, and entered general practice with another female doctor in San Antonio. In 1906, she was hired by the Temple Sanitarium (later Scott and White Memorial Hospital) as the head of the Department of Anesthesiology, although after hearing of her hiring Dr. Raleigh White wrote to his partner Dr. A.C. Scott, "I will be home soon, for I know you have lost your mind if you have employed a woman doctor."

In 1925, Dr. Potter presented the paper "Insulin-Glucose in the Prevention of Postanesthetic Vomiting" at the fourth annual meeting of the Southern Association of Anesthetists, describing the success of her trial use of insulin-glucose to counteract vomiting due to anesthetics used during surgery. The paper was published in the April 1926 Journal of Anesthesia and Analgesia. Dr. Potter cofounded the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists, which she was president of in the late 1940s. She retired in 1947. In 1952, Dr. Potter was elected as an honorary member of the Texas Medical Association, and in 1954 she became the first woman to receive the "Golden T" award for 50 years of service to medicine from the University of Texas Medical Branch. In 1961, she was chosen as an honorary member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

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