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Agnew was born on the 24th of November, 1818, Nobleville, Pennsylvania, (present-day Christiana). His parents were Robert Agnew and Agnes Noble. Agnew grew up as a Christian. He was surrounded by a family of doctors and had always known he was going to become a physician.
David Hayes Agnew graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1838.
David Hayes Agnew returned to Nobleville to help his father in his clinic. He worked there for two years. His father was an asthmatic and moved to Maryland in 1840 because the climate was more suited to his condition. Agnew moved with him. In 1852, he bought and revived the Philadelphia School of Anatomy.
During the American Civil War he was consulting surgeon in the Mower Army Hospital, near Philadelphia, and acquired a considerable reputation for his operations in cases of gunshot wounds. On December 21, 1863, he became the Demonstrator of Anatomy and Assistant Lecturer on Clinical Surgery at The University of Pennsylvania. Later, he was requested to assist the Professor of Surgery in the Conduct of the surgical clinics. In the year 1865, he gave summer instruction courses. For the next seven years, he worked for the University as Demonstrator of Anatomy.
David Hayes Agnew attended as operating surgeon when President Garfield was fatally wounded by the bullet of an assassin in 1881. He was the author of several works, the most important being The Principles and Practice of Surgery (1878 - 1883). Agnew caught a severe attack of epidemic influenza in 1890. He never fully recovered. Following this, he had an attack of broncho-vesicular catarrh. On March 9, 1892, he was put in bed for a series of medical problems. After a few days it started to get better but suddenly on March 12 it became much worse. On March 20, he fell into a comatose condition. Agnew stayed like this until he died at 3:20 p. m. on March 22, 1892.
Agnew was one of the leading surgeons in America. His clinics were crowded, as was his waiting-room.
He was also one of the leading experts in the nation on the treatment of gunshot wounds, thus he was the chief consultant in the case of President James A. Garfield when he was shot by Guiteau, in 1881.
In 1888 he was given a complimentary banquet, attended by over 200 physicians, in the foyer of the Academy of Music, at which J. M. Da Costa and Lewis A. Sayre spoke and Weir Mitchell read a poem; and next year he was elected president of the Philadelphia College of Physicians, a crowning honor.
Agnew was also noted for his work The Principles and Practice of Surgery, which set forth his enormous experience, embraced every department of surgery, and was written in a clear, judicial manner so that his well-balanced consideration of points in diagnosis, his lucid explanations of the surgical anatomy of diseases and injuries were of the highest value to the student.
Agnew was six feet tall and possessed a splendid physique. As an operator he was calm, never flurried in the face of emergencies; he could handle the knife with either hand, ambidextrousness having been acquired early in life when a finger on his right hand had a runround; so that spectators marveled at the exactness of his operating and at his judgment.
As a consultant he was most courteous to his brother practitioners, quickly ferreting out the important facts in the case, and advising appropriate treatment. His calm, well-balanced disposition endeared him to all, for he was never irritable, even in the operating-room. When he himself suffered acutely with angina pectoris in late life, he bore the pain with equanimity.
David Hayes Agnew was married to Margaret Irwin.
