Barbera Thornhill says her father invented a medical procedure so ‘millions of people’ can hear again; here is a fact check as she joins Katie Zacharia in making tall claims

Barbera Thornhill has been going viral on social media since she was announced as Trump‘s new Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Riley Barnes, the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, on October 13, posted an image of the 78-year-old envoy on X to announce her appointment, which caused an internet uproar that was viewed over 21 million times.

But it's mostly the criticism from internet kibitzers who are convinced that, for a 78-year-old, she must have had some serious work done on her face. Some find her photograph so scary that they wonder if the Trump administration is “planning to scare the traffickers to death?”



With all the focus and social media scrutiny on her face, one of the overlooked things is a claim that her father and ENT “invented the procedure known as 'Stapedectomy,'” an operation which led to the Cochlear implant, she boasted in her June statement, after hearing her nomination for the post. As per her, it is “a device that has helped millions of people hear again.”

With all the focus and social media scrutiny on her face, one of the overlooked things is a claim that her father is the inventor of ‘stapedectomy,’ an operation which led to the Cochlear implant. “A device that has helped millions of people hear again,” she boasted in her June, after hearing her nomination for the post.

As per the Cleaveland Clinic, this surgery is done “to treat hearing loss caused by otosclerosis.” Otosclerosis damages your stapes, a tiny U-shaped bone in your middle ear that sends sound waves to your inner ear, the health outlet explains. This surgery treats otosclerosis by replacing the stapes with an artificial device.

Also Read: ‘Eyebrow transplant is one possibility’: Plastic surgeon breaks down what other procedures Barbera Thornhill, daughter of an ENT doctor, might have had

Thornhill claimed her father invented stapedectomy

She was consistent with the claim that her mother was a pediatrician, who “was one of the first women to go to Duke Medical School”, and her father, Dr. Edwin Hale Thornhill, was an inventor and ENT. When President Trump, in his first term, nominated her to be the Ambassador to Singapore, in her August 2020 statement, she claimed the same with little rephrasing; this time, she changed “hundreds of thousands” to “millions” of people. However, it was later withdrawn by the Biden Administration in 2021, so she could never serve the post.

“But more than his skill as a surgeon, it was my father’s commitment to treating underserved people and providing them with blessings that we so often take for granted that inspires me even now, and motivates me every day,” says the statement posted 6 years ago, like the 2026 one.

Other than this, not much is known about her father and her mother, who was declared ‘deceased’ in a September 2020 congressional record.

But the first successful stapedectomy was performed in Memphis

But contrary to her claims, the inventor of modern stapedectomy is Tennessee-born otologist Dr. John J. Shea Jr.

A 2025 book by ENT specialist Michael L. Toscano and other physicians, titled “Stapes Surgery for Otosclerosis,” identified the inventor as John J Shea Jr., who performed the first successful stapedectomy using a Teflon prosthesis in a patient with otosclerosis on May 1, 1956.

The experts of the book published in StatPearls Publishing also trace back the origins of the procedure to 1892, when Frederick L Jack performed a bilateral procedure on a patient who apparently retained hearing for 10 years.

A research paper published in 2021 by John P Marinelli from the San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium and other otologists also confirmed that John J. Shea Jr. indeed “performed the first successful stapedectomy and ushered in the modern era of stapes surgery.”

Stapedectomy was first conducted by Dr. John J Shea Jr.

Tennessee-based Shea Clinic has a blog post that also says that in 1956, Dr. Shea Jr. performed stapedectomy in Memphis. “To say that it was ‘revolutionary’ is an understatement. It literally changed the course of modern otology,” the clinic wrote.

Jack L. Pulec, the Editor-in-Chief for The Ear, Nose and Throat Journal, wrote in a 1996 piece while remembering the 40th anniversary of the first stapedectomy, “it was to be no passade.”

“This momentous event not only led to the prompt restoration of normal hearing for millions of patients suffering from footplate otosclerosis, but also revitalized the specialty of otology while making universal use of the operating microscope a reality,” it reads. At that time, Dr. Shea was the head of The Shea Clinic and worked with his colleagues, including John R. Emmett, M.D., and John J. Shea III, M.D.

Katie Zacharia’s claim of being a lawyer

This is also at the time when Trump’s pick for the White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, who repeatedly claimed that she is a lawyer, faced questions about that claim. However, the White House has offered no evidence that she passed the bar exam before getting herself fired within five days of the appointment.