Patricia Bath died at age 76 in San Francisco, California, from complications related to cancer.
Patricia Bath died on May 30, 2019, in San Francisco, California, at the age of 76, from complications related to cancer. Her death came just weeks after she had testified before the US Senate on the importance of supporting women inventors, a final act of advocacy that exemplified her lifelong dedication to expanding opportunity and equity in science and medicine.
At the time of her death, Bath left behind an extraordinary legacy: five US patents for cataract-treatment technology, a career of medical firsts including the first African-American woman to complete a residency in ophthalmology and the first woman to chair an ophthalmology residency program in the United States, and the co-founding of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, an organization dedicated to the principle that eyesight is a basic human right.
Her death was widely mourned within the medical and scientific communities, and tributes highlighted both her technical innovations and her decades-long fight against racial and gender discrimination in medicine. In the years following her passing, her legacy continued to grow, culminating in her posthumous induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2022 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2024, ensuring that her pioneering contributions would be remembered by future generations of scientists, physicians, and inventors.