The Erasto Gaertner Hospital is a health institution in

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in ...

, in the

Brazilian state The federative units of Brazil ( pt, unidades federativas do Brasil) are subnational entities with a certain degree of autonomy (self-government, self-regulation and self-collection) and endowed with their own government and constitution, which ...

of Paraná. It specializes in the clinical and surgical treatment of patients with

oncological Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...

diseases.

History

The Erasto Gaertner Hospital was created on the initiative of Dr. Erasto Gaertner, who, on Wednesday, 2 January 1952, donated a land of to the Paraná League for Combat of Cancer (Liga Paranaense de Combate ao Cancer - LPCC) for the construction of what today is the Erasto Gaertner Hospital. On Saturday, 11 June 1955, the hospital's

cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

was placed. Before being officially inaugurated, patients with cancer were treated since 1970 when Paulo Pimentel, governor of Paraná State, donated a

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, pr ...

pump, that allowed 47 sessions of

radiotherapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radia ...

per day. The local community and volunteers gathered resources to finalize and effectively inaugurate the Erasto Gaertner Hospital, on Friday, 8 December 1972. In the beginning, the Erasto Gaertner offered basic clinical and surgical care, attending few patients in an operating room, with a radiotherapy device and the cobalt pump. Nowadays, the hospital is considered the largest cancer treatment center in

South Brazil The South Region of Brazil (; ) is one of the five regions of Brazil. It includes the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina, and covers , being the smallest region of the country, occupying only about 6.76% of the territory ...

References

Hospitals in Curitiba {{Brazil-hospital-stub