History
In King Kamehameha IV's initial speech to the legislature in January 1855, the King proposed creating a hospital for the people of Hawaii. At that time, the continued existence of the Hawaiian race was seriously threatened by the influx of disease brought to the islands by foreign visitors. A smallpox epidemic in 1853 had killed thousands of the dwindling population. French-American physician Charles Guillou proposed building a public hospital in April 1858. When Emma's adoptive father Dr. Thomas Rooke died in 1858, all his instruments were donated to the hospital effort. In January 1859 a committee of Robert Crichton Wyllie (a former physician) and David L Gregg was formed to plan the hospital investigate funding. Queen Emma enthusiastically supported the dream of a hospital, and the two campaigned to make it a reality. They personally went door-to-door soliciting the necessary funding. The royal couple exceeded their goal in just over a month, raising $13,530. In turn, the Legislature appropriated $6,000. The first hospital physician was William Hillebrand, who served until 1871.
The site picked in 1860 was an area called Manamana owned by Caesar Kapaʻakea, patriarch of the House of Kalākaua. The architect Theodore Heuck was selected for the first building. The name was changed to The Queen's Medical Center in 1967.
The hospital was featured in 2 episodes of the television series Trauma: Life in the ER.
Read more about this topic: The Queen's Medical Center
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