Introduction: John Blair Deaver was an iconic American surgeon who rose in prominence at the outset of the 20th century, as the foundling specialty of urology was in its infancy. By all accounts he was a difficult personality but a brilliant operative surgeon inventing the retractor that bears his eponym today. Deaver was specifically interested in all aspects of urology. Methods: The culling of all pertinent aspects of the life and career of John Blair Deaver revealed almost 248 articles and many books in surgery. Though a graduate from Penn he left his alma mater because of difficulties with J. William White, only to return after the latter's passing. Results: Like White, Deaver also was interested in genito-urinary surgery though for sure a general surgeon through-and-through. He was a proponent of early appendectomy and used his own now famous retractor to operate through small incisions. He was particularly skilled at suprapubic prostatectomy and wrote his famed textbook on prostatic surgery in 1905, dedicated to his sadly deceased son. His Saturday clinics became something of a world-wide phenomenon in his lengthy career. Conclusions: “Cut well, get well, stay well” was one of his many aphorisms from this great slasher. He most famously also said of a surgeon he should have the following attributes: “The brain of Apollo, the heart of a lion, eye of an eagle, hand of a woman, and the constitution of a mule.” This of course was paraphrased by John Bell of Edinburgh. Deaver died on September 25, 1931 while being treated with X-rays by his friend and colleague Henry Pancoast. The irony just might be that this was for prostate cancer at age 76, but Pancoast destroyed all of the records at the request of his esteemed patient. SOURCE OF Funding: None
