The first patient who was saved by the antibiotic penicillin was a woman named Anne Miller, in 1942.
The patient had given birth but had developed an infection from the Strep bacteria, and her conditioning was worsening despite surgery and blood transfusions.
Her doctors were able to obtain an experimental drug called penicillin, which had been developed by Alexander Fleming, and injected her with it. She had rapid improvement and her fever went away the same night.
Anne Miller graduated from Columbia to become a nurse. She and her husband raised three sons and she lived to age 90.
Her hospital chart from being treated with Penicillin is now in the Smithsonian Museum.
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