Montreal General Hospital

History

Fund-raising to establish an English hospital in Montreal was undertaken in the years 1818-1820 after an initial petition for a new public hospital was accidentally denied by the lowest level of the colonial government of Lower Canada at the time, the House of Assembly. The growing needs of the English-speaking population led to several charities, among them the Female Benevolent Society of Montreal and the Society for the Relief of Immigrants, to ask for help in building a new hospital. At this time, Montreal had two hospitals: the Grey Nuns' Hopital General and the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal).

In 1819 enough money had been received to lease a building on Craig Street to accommodate 24 patients and this small hospital opened on May 1, 1819. By 1820 enough money had been subscribed to purchase property on Dorchester and St Dominique streets. The cornerstone of the new Montreal General Hospital was laid in 1821 and the 72-bed hospital building opened in 1822. The hospital received its first charter in 1823.

Famous Montreal beer-brewer John Molson of "Molson's beer" (founded in 1786 and still sold to this day under the name "Molson Canadian Lager") and his three sons John Jr., Thomas, and William contributed to the hospital financially through the purchasing of the Dorchester Street lot, the construction of the main building itself, and physically - with John Molson being the presenter of the initial petition to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada (after being sick and seeking hospital care himself, becoming personally invested) to create a new public hospital in Montreal in 1820, however the petition would be denied only because of a procedural error. Therefore the Montreal General would become a privately funded institution.

At the same time four Edinburgh-trained physicians Andrew Fernando Holmes, William Robertson, William Caldwell and John Stephenson were working to establish medical teaching in Montreal. They founded the Montreal Medical Institution in 1823 as a teaching unit of the hospital. In 1829 the Institution became part of McGill University, then known as McGill College. It was McGill's first faculty and Canada's first faculty of medicine.

On May 30, 1955, the Montreal General Hospital moved to its present location near Mount Royal on Cedar Avenue, at the corner of Côte-des-Neiges Road and one block north of Pine Avenue.

Notable physicians

• Carl Goresky, his theoretical treatment of the transport of substances through intact organs led the basis for the understanding of events within the microvasculature
• Phil Gold, a physician and scientist. In 1968, he co-discovered with Samuel O. Freedman the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), which resulted in a blood test used in the diagnosis and management of people with cancer.
• Albert Moll, a psychiatrist who pioneered the day treatment of psychiatric patients.
• David Mulder, a physician and surgeon committed to the field of trauma and known as the primary physician for the Montreal Canadiens
• Ouida Ramón-Moliner, a anaesthetist who assisted Wilder Penfield perform awake crainotomies by keeping patients awake to locate where exactly there were suffering from epilepsy.

Images

Hôpital Général de Montréal.JPG Montreal General Hospital Pine Street.jpg Montreal General Hospital Pine Street Side View.jpg Montreal General Hospital courtyard view.jpg Montreal General Hospital Pine Street front view up.jpg Montreal General Hospital side view.jpg

References

References

1. (April 11, 2018). "Opinion: Humboldt tragedy shows value of helicopter ambulances". montrealgazette.com.
2. "THESE ARE THE 20 BEST HOSPITALS IN CANADA: REPORT".
3. "Biography – MOLSON, JOHN (1763-1836) – Volume VII (1836-1850) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
4. "Biography – MOLSON, JOHN (1763-1836) – Volume VII (1836-1850) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
5. (April–May 2020). "In Memoriam: Dr. Ouida Ramon-Moliner". The Townships Sun.