Dr. Leonidas H. Berry (1902 – 1995) began his career when healthcare was segregated in America. He was a gastroenterologist at the Black owned and operated Provident Hospital in Chicago, the same hospital Daniel Hale Williams opened, which you read about last week! While a German doctor invented the new and improved gastroscope (Wolf-Schindler Scope), Dr. Berry couldn’t help but think about ways to improve the scope and his own practice. He went to Germany to train with the inventing doctor on using the scope, other gastroenterology techniques, and endoscopy.
Through this education and further experience with patients, Leonidas developed the Eder-Berry biopsy attachment for the scope. This was the first time an attachment was able to view the stomach and could suction out any tissue that needed examining. Prior to this, any visualization of the stomach required an incision. Despite these accomplishments and being recognized as a top gastroenterologist worldwide, his application to be an attending physician at Michael Reese Hospital was denied for 17 years. He was deemed “not qualified”.
As the son of an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church minister, justice and civil rights weighed on Dr. Berry’s heart. During the upheaval in Cairo, IL in 1970, Dr. Berry established the Flying Black Medics. This team of nurses, social workers, dieticians, pharmacists, and biochemists would fly from Chicago to the rural town to provide medical care for the impoverished black residents. They utilized the Ward Chapel AME church in town as their clinic and were able to provide care to a community that did not have any access to healthcare due to segregation and tension within their town.