Neurosurgeon Merylee Werthan Jost, MD, died of pancreatic cancer on Nov. 13, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Dr. Jost, 88, was former chief of neurotrauma at Frankford Hospital in Philadelphia, which now operates under the name Aria-Jefferson Health.
She opened a private practice in Philadelphia with two other female neurosurgeons in 1968. It was the only such group in the U.S. at the time, according to Women in Neurosurgery, a subdivision of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.
Dr. Jost began practicing at the hospital in 1968 and worked there until she retired in 2007.
She was affiliated with Philadelphia-based Einstein Medical Center, Jefferson Health and Temple University Hospital, where she was a clinical professor of neurosurgery.