Letitia Mumford Geer (1852–1935) was an American nurse who invented the modern design of medical syringe, which was patented in 1899. The advantage of Geer's design was that it could be operated using only one hand, unlike other syringes of the time.
Early life
Several sources state that Geer was born in 1852 in New York to George Warren Geer and Cornelia Matilda Geer (nee Mumford), however a 2023 article by Full Support Healthcare states that she was born in 1871 in Michigan to a family of farmers. Geer was one of four children.
Geer attended college and taught for several years before marrying Charles Geer, a businessman who was involved in the manufacture of medical instruments.
Career
Geer saw that the syringes used in medical operations were challenging to use, frequently imprecise, and prone to infection; this motivated her to search for a more accurate, user-friendly, and sanitary syringe. Geer submitted a patent application on February 12, 1896, which outlined a medical syringe. In 1899, Geer received a patent for the same invention. A list of Top 10 Inventions by Women that Changed the World erroneously stated that Geer invented the entire concept of the medical syringe, however the more common view is that medical syringes had been in use for centuries prior and that Geer instead improved on their design.
According to Geer's patent, “In a hand-syringe the combination of a cylinder, a piston and an operating-rod which is bent upon itself to form a smooth and rigid arm terminating in a handle, which, in its extreme positions, is located within reach of the fingers of the hand which holds the cylinder, thus permitting one hand to hold and operate the syringe...” Geer's one-handed design for syringes became the industry standard and permanently altered how doctors administer drugs. The needle in Geer's design was removable, making the syringe easier to reuse and more hygienic.
Geer founded the Geer Manufacturing Company in 1904 after receiving her patent. Hospitals and doctors around the country started to favor Geer's syringes. However, her new syringe design was met with resistance from several hospitals and clinicians who opted to continue with the more established and traditional designs. Nonetheless, Greer's company was successful and she went on to invent other medical instruments, including a nasal speculum and a retractor.
Death
Geer died in 1935 in Kings County, New York, at the age of 83.