Saint Christopher's Hospital For Children Celebrates Its 140th Anniversary
By Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This year, Saint Christopher's Hospital for Children is celebrating its 140th anniversary, and part of that is marking each decade since its inception.
Monday, Saint Christopher's marked the decade 1886 to 1895, and 1886 was the first year the hospital offered neonatal care to critically ill infants.
Neonatologist, Doctor Jan Gopelrud, says the area of expertise started at the turn of the last century with the advent of incubators. But it progressed from there.
"Neonatalogy really took off in the 1960's when people started to do mechanical ventilation of sick babies and things like intravenous nutrition was developed then that babies could use so that babies could survive surgeries," said Dr. Gopelrud.
Originally, she says, children's hospitals only admitted children from the ages of 3 to 13, because the early years, birth through 3 were really difficult to survive in the era before vaccinations. Next month, Saint Christopher's will be shining the light on the first ambulance which was actually a horse drawn carriage.