Inside the Friendship Between
MLK Jr. and the Surgeon
Who Saved Him
MLK Jr. and the Surgeon
Who Saved Him
Dr. Emil A. Naclerio, member of the surgical team that operated on the Rev. Martin Luther King, at King’s bedside in Harlem Hospital in New York on Sept. 21, 1958.
(Dr. Naclerio was an Attending Physician at Columbus Hospital /Cabrini Medical Center)
The operation to remove the 7-inch piece of steel was overseen by Dr. Aubre Maynard, the hospital's chief surgeon, and performed by Dr. Emil Naclerio and Dr. John W.V. Cordice.
By Larry Celona and Max Jaeger
September 19, 2018
As the nation prepares for the 50th anniversary of the 1968 assassination of the civil rights icon, his 1958 stabbing has been largely forgotten, although he said on the eve of his death a decade later, that had he merely sneezed, it would have killed him.
The tip of Curry’s blade, King said, was on the
edge of his aorta, “And once that’s punctured, you’re drowned in your
own blood - that’s the end of you.”
But that’s what made it all the more shocking when, on Sept. 20,
1958, the mentally ill woman produced from her handbag a 7-inch steel
letter opener - and plunged it into Martin Luther King Jr.’s chest at a Manhattan signing for his book “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story.”
Middle-aged and neatly dressed, Izola Ware Curry did not have the cut of an assassin.
And so, 60 years ago today, the beating heart of the civil rights
movement nearly ceased - until King was saved by two Harlem doctors.
If King had died that day, there would be no “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail” and no “I Have a Dream” building momentum for the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. The attention to housing rights that marked King’s
later career - and spurred the Civil Rights Act of 1968 - might never
have come into sharp focus.
“Without Martin Luther King Jr., there would be no civil rights
movement. My father allowed him those 10 extra years to continue the
movement,” Ron Naclerio, whose thoracic surgeon dad, Dr. Emil Naclerio,
helped save King, told The Post.
With Curry’s dagger still buried in his chest, King was rushed to
Harlem Hospital, where Dr. Naclerio and Dr. John Cordice were called in
to save the leader of a burgeoning movement.
Dr. John Cordice sitting in his home with a photo of the operating room the night Dr. King was stabbed
Dr. John Cordice sitting in his home with a photo of the operating room the night Dr. King was stabbed
Naclerio was at home when the phone rang, his wife, Gloria, recalls.
“I remember we were getting ready to go to a wedding at the Waldorf. My
husband had a tuxedo on, and I had my gown on, when the kitchen phone
rang,” she told The Post last year, shortly before her death earlier
this year.
“My husband answered it, asked a few questions, then hung up.”
Then “he looked at me and said there was a change in plans. He was
going to take me to the wedding, but then he had go to work — he had an
emergency. He didn’t say who or what the emergency was. That was my
husband - he would have went to work no matter who the patient was.”
Curry’s blade was lodged in King’s sternum, just a hair’s breadth
from his aorta - the main artery that pipes blood from the heart to the
rest of the circulatory system - and Naclerio had to remove two ribs and
go into King’s torso from the side, the son said.
The delicate procedure took the two physicians and their support team two and a half hours.
‘King hugged my father, thanked him, exchanged numbers, and a strong 10-year friendship began
During his final speech a decade later, King would reveal that his
doctors told him the slightest movement — even a cough or sneeze — could
have irreparably ruptured the artery and drowned him in his own blood
in a matter of minutes.
“I want to say tonight, I, too, am happy I didn’t sneeze, because if I
had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around in 1960, when students all
over the South started sitting in at lunch counters,” King said during
his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3,
1968.
The following evening, nearly 10 years after the stabbing, a bullet fired by James Earl Ray killed King. But it couldn’t erase his world-changing achievements.
Dr. Naclerio was crushed.
“He was devastated. It was like a member of the family was killed,”
Ron recalled. “He was very quiet all night, mostly staying in his
office.”
The intense reaction spoke to the deep friendship that Naclerio and King forged after the surgeon saved his life.
“When Dr. King was released, he bumped into my father on the
elevator,” Ron Naclerio said. “King hugged my father, thanked him,
exchanged numbers, and a strong 10-year friendship began.
“They talked and saw each other over the next 10 years, calling the
house on Thanksgiving and/or Christmas most years. They talked about a
lot of things, King respected and trusted my father, and he would bounce
thoughts and ideas off my father. I think they each thought of the
other as a genius.”
King would test out passages from his forthcoming speeches on
Naclerio, finding an intelligent ear and the kind of feedback only a
movement outsider could provide, Ron remembered.
Ron
Naclerio sits in his Queens home kitchen looking through a scrapbook he
has about how his father, Dr. Emil Naclerio, saved the life of Martin
Luther King.
Matthew McDermott
Matthew McDermott
Emil Naclerio
Il medico italiano che salvò la vita a Martin Luther King
di Manuela Cavalieri e Donatella Mulvoni
Era il 2013. Durante la presentazione di un documentario su King da Sylvia il ristorante di soul food più popolare di Harlem, ci siamo imbattute in Ron, allenatore di una squadra di baseball del Queens, ma soprattutto figlio di Emil Anthony Naclerio, il medico italoamericano che salvò la vita al reverendo Martin Luther King nel 1958.
https://www.raiplayradio.it/articoli/2018/04/Radio3-Tre-Soldi-EMIL-NACLERIO-MARTIN-LUTHER-KING-74c87db8-594d-40a7-9142-9e5d65119fcd.html
He's seen here recuperating with is mother (left) and wife (right).
He's seen here recuperating with is mother (left) and wife (right).
DR. EMIL NACLERIO SAVES MLK'S LIFE
IMG 3781New York, NY - In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day we'd like to honor and acknowledge a man who was recognized as helping to save Martin Luther King Jr's life after he was stabbed in 1958.When Martin Luther King Jr. was rushed to Harlem Hospital, Dr. Emil Naclerio performed a life saving operation that kept the civil rights leader alive.
Dr. Emil Naclerio's son went on to become the legendary high school basketball coach, Ron Naclerio (pictured) of Cardozo High School.
Watch the touching video below of how Naclerio kept one of our nation's greatest leaders alive.
https://www.bigapplebasketball.com/index.php/97-archives/1080-dr-emil-naclerio-saves-mlk-s-wife
Mahalia Jackson ♫ Amazing Grace
👇♪ 📽 ♪ 👇
- https://nypost.com/2018/04/03/the-assassination-attempt-that-left-mlk-jr-with-a-cross-shaped-scar-on-his-heart
- https://nypost.com/2018/09/19/inside-the-friendship-between-mlk-jr-and-the-surgeon-who-saved-him
- https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Doctor-Saves-Martin-Luther-King-Junior-Life-New-York-City-Obituary-238289901.html
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