Aesth. Plast. Surg. 19:285-286, 1995
Ferdinand A. Ofodile, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Surg. 19, 285–286 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00451104
The Harlem Hospital Center Plastic Surgery Program recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of its founding. The first chairman of the program and one of its founders, Dr. Arthur L. Garnes, was in attendance and received an award for his accomplishments. Also in attendance were several plastic surgeons who had been trained by him.
Dr. Garnes was born in Manhattan on June 13, 1912. He was the second of seven children. His father, an insurance agent, encouraged his children to acquire a good education, at a time when it was very difficult for Blacks to gain access to higher education. Dr. Garnes attended Townsend Harris High School in New York and City College of New York where he obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in 1933. He attended medical school at Howard University in Washington D.C., graduating in 1937.
Internship selection at Harlem Hospital was customarily achieved through entrance examination. He was one of the 24 candidates selected during that year. During his five years of surgical training he developed an interest in plastic surgery. In 1943, after being appointed Assistant Attending in Surgery, he started, with his mentor Dr. Joseph Tamarin along with Bernard Simon, the nucleus of the plastic surgery unit in Harlem Hospital. They conducted a Tuesday plastic surgery clinic at the hospital. Dr. Simon eventually became the chairman of plastic surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Dr. Garnes developed a special interest in hand surgery, and in later years devoted his practice to this subspecialty.
In 1963, he was appointed a full attending. In 1965, the affiliation of Harlem Hospital plastic surgery section with Columbia University was initiated. The late Dr. Frank Symond, Professor of Surgery at Columbia University, was named the chief of the section and Columbia Presbyterian plastic surgery residents rotated through the Harlem Hospital section as part of their training.
In 1972, a plastic surgery residency program affiliated with Columbia Presbyterian Hospital was created at Harlem Hospital through the efforts of Dr. George Crikelair, then the chairman of plastic surgery at Columbia Presbyterian, and Dr. Arthur L. Garnes. Dr. Garnes was appointed the chairman of the program and Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at Columbia University. He was the first Black American Director of Plastic Surgery in the United States, and the program became the first approved plastic surgery residency program in a predominantly Black hospital. Through this program many successful plastic surgeons received their training, including minority surgeons, some of whom have distinguished themselves in their practice.
Dr. Arthur L. Games is a deeply religious man and a consummate gentleman who devoted his practice to the care of inner-city patients. After his retirement, he moved with his wife, Vivian, to Maryland and expanded his ministry work in his church, where he remains an active minister to this day. Dr. Garnes has three daughters, one of whom is a physician, specializing in allergy and immunology, another is a medical secretary, and the third is a veterinary surgeon. He also has three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
