Diamond was born in 1931 at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, the only child of Max Sokol and Anne Hirschhorn Sokol. She was born with constriction ring syndrome, a congenital abnormality causing the loss of several of her fingers and toes before birth.
Diamond enrolled at Smith College when she was 16 years old and completed a bachelor"s degree with a major in chemistry and a double minor in physics and zoology, graduating in 1951. She then attended the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating, she decided to pursue surgery and, with the encouragement of her own orthopedic surgeon, returned to the University of Pennsylvania to obtain a degree in orthopedics.
She underwent more than 25 surgical procedures before reaching the age of 13. After graduating in 1955, she became the first female resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and the hospital"s first female orthopedic surgical resident in 1957. After completing her residency, she became a certified orthopedic surgeon in 1963.
Working at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Diamond specialized in pediatric orthopedics, and in 1971 she founded the Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America with seven other surgeons.
From 1971 to 1972, she also served as the president of the Maryland Orthopedic Society. She has worked as a consultant at Maryland General Hospital, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Franklin Square Hospital and Union Memorial Hospital.
Diamond served as a professor in orthopedic surgery at the University of Maryland for 35 years, from 1961 until 1996. From 1991 until 1996, she also held a position as a clinical associate professor in pediatrics at the university.
She was inducted into the Maryland Women"s Hall of Fame in 2006.
