University of Alberta Hospital - History

History

The University of Alberta Hospital opened in 1906 with 5 staff members. Since then, it has steadily grown into a world class facility today which now is staffed by over 8,000 staff and physicians (as of 2007). The hospital began training nurses through recognized apprenticeship program in 1908. In 1916 during World War I it served as the Strathcona Military Hospital. It was the provincial rehabilitation centre for the polio epidemics in the 1920s and 1950s. Dr. Hepburn, a pioneering neurosurgeon, developed "The Edmonton Tongs" as initial treatment for cervical spine injuries in the late 1920s. Dr. John Callaghan performed Canada's first open-heart surgery here in 1956, and the first heart valve replacement 6 years later in 1962. The first heart transplant in Western Canada was performed at the hospital in 1985, by 2001 the hospital had conducted 500 heart and heart-lung transplants. In 2001 the Stollery Children's Hospital opened. In 2006, the hospital had the most technically advanced and only intensive care unit dedicated solely to the treatment of burn patients.

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