When [physician Allan Hart, born Alberta] Lucille Hart grew old enough to learn about her father’s death, she would comfort her mother: someday, she said, she would grow up to be a man.
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After transitioning, Hart was hired as an intern at San Francisco Hospital in November 1917… Three months later, in February 1918, Hart applied for a laboratory position with physician Harry Alderson at the nearby Lane Hospital. Then something awful happened.
“Girl Poses as Male Doctor in Hospital,” roared the headline of an article in the February 5, 1918, edition of the San Francisco Examiner.
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It turned out that a former Stanford classmate had recognized Hart while he was applying for the Lane Hospital job… Hart abruptly resigned his internship and headed home to Oregon, but stood by his conviction to transition to a man.
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Hart kept going—and saved the lives of countless others.
“Hart was a pioneer in using chest x-rays to detect tuberculosis,” says Elliot Fishman, a radiologist at Johns Hopkins University.
“At that point, no one was really screening for TB… Because of Hart, doctors were able to treat patients before they had complications. And since TB is an infectious disease, he was able to separate TB patients from others to stop the spread.”
