Abstract
In 1939, the 75th anniversary program marking the founding of the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled (R & C), the oldest orthopaedic hospital in the nation, was held at the hospital site in New York City. Dr. Philip D. Wilson, Surgeon-in-Chief since 1935, used this event to mark the return of the hospital to its leadership role in the country. When the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled first opened its doors on May 1, 1863, the name of the hospital was not unusual; it described the type of patients treated. In 1940, the Board of Managers with guidance from Dr. Wilson changed the name to the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS). In 1941, with Britain engaged in a European war, Dr. Wilson felt there was a need for the Americans to support the British. He personally organized the American Hospital in Britain, a privately funded voluntary unit, to help care for the wounded. After the United States actually entered World War II in December 1941, HSS quickly organized support at all levels with a significant number of professional and auxiliary staff, eventually enlisting in the military. Even with such staff turnover, the hospital continued to function under Dr. Wilson’s leadership. After the war ended in 1945, Wilson forged ahead to further restore HSS as a leader in musculoskeletal medicine and surgery.
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Notes
Back to the colonial era, the city provided almshouses for the poor, sick, homeless, hungry, and destitute.
Such hospitals were called voluntary because they were supported by voluntary contributions and not taxes.
The name The Hospital for Special Surgery was later shortened to Hospital for Special Surgery in 1996.
Robert Lee Patterson, Jr. (1907–1994) would eventually serve as Surgeon-in-Chief of the Hospital for Special Surgery (1963–1972). Presbyterian Hospital had its own orthopaedic staff until 1945 when New York Orthopaedic Hospital would merge with it.
Under General Kirk, the Army Medical Corps was expanded from 1,200 to 47,000 physicians, 15,000 dentists and 500,000 personnel. President Harry S. Truman chose Dr. Kirk as his personal physician during the Potsdam Conference.
Eight years later, in 1954, Dr. Helpern became the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, a post he held until1973. He was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Forensic Medicine at New York University’s School of Medicine from 1954 to 1974 and was on the faculty of Cornell University Medical College. He was referred to as the world’s greatest detective and the foremost authority in forensic medicine in the world [17].
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Levine, D.B. The Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled Renamed The Hospital for Special Surgery 1940; The War Years 1941–1945. HSS Jrnl 5, 1–8 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11420-008-9093-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11420-008-9093-4