Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America’s Most Storied Hospital by David Oshinsky Grotesque and beautiful, gory and clean, putrid and gorgeous, all at the same time. While these are contradictory terms, they all encapsulate one specific place: Bellevue Hospital. David Oshinsky’s Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America’s Most Storied Hospital, lays out a quick history of this institution, touching on the grisly and the miraculous in each section. One explores the inception of germ theory and how it revolutionized the hospital. Germ theory states illnesses are caused by microscopic organisms which get into the body and do us harm. It’s important to note this is no longer a theory and is accepted as fact, but at one point this was not the case. Rather, people thought illnesses were caused by clouds of gas, which is kind of true, but it ignores the idea that a person could pass along their illness to another through unclean surgery utensils, apparatus, or their own skin. Example, the treatment of President Garfield after an assassination attempt. After the bullet was lodged in the president’s body, doctors from Bellevue poked and prodded the wound with their unwashed hands and fingers. President Garfield would later die from the gunshot wound, but it is just as likely he died from an infection brought on by the examination of his wound without sanitized utensils. But there are also less horrific examples of things which happened at Bellevue which changed the history of medicine. One was the invention of the ambulance. Originally they were horse drawn carriages, but the idea was the same as we see today where they are given the right-of-way and were life-saving when time is of the essence. What is most impressive about the hospital’s history though is the fastidious and caring spirits of those who have worked at the hospital for years and years, and nothing best exemplifies these traits than the 9/11 attacks. All doctors, nurses, interns, and anyone else who worked at the hospital came in to work without question on that day, but none of the victims arrived at Bellevue. Baffled by this, and rather than wait around, employees left Bellevue and went to the site of the World Trade Center. There they found the victims they anticipated to arrive at the hospital and they began to administer aid on scene. The history of Bellevue may be grisly and sanguine, but it also shows the best parts of humanity and just how far we’ve come in caring for each other. 3.5/5 cups of coffee
