Nice article on St. Vincent's Hospital - leading hospital in the US for AIDS care - where I was born and my mother trained

Of course the hospital closed in 2010. My mother graduated from St. Vincent's College in the Bronx -one of the first college programs that gave a  BS in Nursing. Much of her hospital training was at St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village and she also worked there for awhile. But most importantly, that's where I was born! YAY!! That's me with mouth open - a prelude of things to come?

Here's the article from the Jesuit publication, America

... The discs form a series of concentric circles. On one, the outermost circle, in all capital letters, is printed, “FORMER SITE OF SAINT VINCENT’S HOSPITAL 1849-2010.” The next ring reads, “THE SISTERS OF CHARITY FOUNDED THE HOSPITAL TO CARE FOR THE POOR AND DISADVANTAGED.” An image of a woman appears in the middle, identifiable by her distinctive bonnet as a member of the Sisters of Charity. I kept walking and came across the marker I had been looking for. The center circle contains the image of a ribbon. Around it is printed “INTERNATIONAL AIDS EPIDEMIC 1980s” and around that “IN 1984 SAINT VINCENT’S OPENED THE FIRST AND LARGEST AIDS WARD ON THE EAST COAST.”

Saint Vincent’s Hospital served the poor and indigent for as long as it existed. In its earlier days, sisters took care of victims from a massive cholera epidemic. People who had been aboard the Titanic when it sank were taken here. Not far from the site of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the hospital treated victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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Tom Bernarden introduced himself; he said he had lived in the neighborhood for decades. We told him we were interested in the history of the hospital. He told us about his admiration for the Sisters of Charity of New York and why Saint Vincent’s was so important to the L.G.B.T. community during the height of the H.I.V. and AIDS crisis.

“I lost all my friends, all right. You understand? I’m 24 when I move in here. I’m 70” today, he told us. When asked about the sisters, he paused for a moment. “They were there,” he said, recalling how many other people turned their backs to a community in need. “They were there.” Mr. Bernarden, a local tour guide who describes himself as the unofficial mayor of the park, had a few less complimentary things to say about the Catholic Church, mostly about money. But he also told complete strangers how much he admired the Catholic sisters who ran Saint Vincent’s, praising them for caring for the sick when everyone else vanished.

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Saint Vincent’s was a Catholic hospital, so it provided medical care that was in line with church teaching. Part of that is to care for the poor, which included gay men and drug users with H.I.V. and AIDS. It also meant following church teaching on sexual ethics, which did not permit condoms. Doctors could not give them out, and they could not counsel safe sex to gay men. But Sister Karen said that she and other hospital administrators worked with the medical team to ensure that patients had all the information they needed to protect themselves from this still little-understood disease.

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Many people I spoke to about the legacy of Saint Vincent’s said the hospital reflected on how to serve the gay community better—not in spite of being Catholic but because it was Catholic. That is, the sisters and other hospital administrators took seriously their mandate to serve those in need. Joan Blanchfield is a retired nurse who is now in her 80s. She recalled connecting her work to her faith with the help of a particular image of Jesus.

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Back in the park, Mr. Bernarden mourned the closure of the hospital—nearly a decade later. But he said the legacy of Saint Vincent’s continues because of the sisters who asked how they could do better and provide the care that they knew their patients deserved. “The only people to stay behind and take care of the dying and the sick at that epidemic were the Sisters of Charity, following their Christian mission,” he said.

 

Comments

[Paul Novotny]

Yes St Vinnies was a premier NYC hospital. Many many Decades ago, when I was a medical student,it was a choice rotation.
It would have been great for NYC residents to have it available during this pandemic . Alas, the NYS dept of health accomplished its goal of closing one half of all NYS hospital beds.
Such foresight is truly admirable !