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The history of the Department of Neurosurgery
The southern areas of Florida and the City of Miami had to await the establishment of the railway created by Henry Flagler at the urging of Julia Tuttle in 1896 for its development. The marshy swamps soon transformed into the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, and the population of South Florida rose exponentially. It is important to remember that the city of Miami’s history and its health system are barely a century old.
James Lyerly was the first neurosurgeon to set up practice in the state of Florida in 1934. In 1940, Dr. Lyerly brought in Dr. Tracey Haverfield as an associate. After serving in the military from 1942 to 1945, Dr. Haverfield decided to relocate to Miami. He opened the second neurosurgical of office in Florida, and he was the first neurosurgeon to practice in Miami. The Department of Neurosurgery began at the University of Miami in 1959, and it became the state’s first neurological surgery training program. The Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine commemorates more than half a century in patient care, teaching, and research by paying tribute to and reflecting on the accomplishments and achievements of its faculty.
The Beginning
The University of Miami was established in 1926, and from its inception there was interest in including a medical school. However, the timing was not optimal. Shortly after its opening, the campus was ravaged by the “great” hurricane of 1926, which remains the costliest U.S. hurricane ever when adjusted for inflation, population, and wealth normalization yielding a cost of nearly $165 billion in current dollars. The Great Depression and World War II followed this catastrophe. It would take another two decades before the university revisited the idea of a medical school. The university’s announcement of its plan to build a medical school was greeted with a series of political conflicts. Click here to read more