The Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti is a

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

Deschapelles :''This article refers to a town in Haiti. For the French chess master, see Alexandre Deschapelles.'' Deschapelles ( ht, Dechpel) is a town in the Verrettes commune, in the Artibonite department of Haiti. It is located approximately 54&nbs ...

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

. It was established in 1956 by Larry Mellon, who was inspired by

Hôpital Albert Schweitzer The Hôpital Albert Schweitzer was established in 1913 by Albert Schweitzer and Helene Bresslau Schweitzer in Lambaréné, Gabon. History Albert Schweitzer opened a hospital in 1913 in Lambaréné in what was then French Equatorial Africa that b ...

and the life and philosophy of

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schwei ...

History

In 1947, Larry Mellon, inspired by

and his work in Africa at

, went to medical school at

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

with the intention of following in Schweitzer's footsteps. He went to Haiti in 1952 on a research trip as part of his medical studies, and during that visit decided to locate the clinic in the Artibonite Valley; he was granted land that was formerly a banana plantation by then president of Haiti,

Paul Magloire Paul Eugène Magloire (July 19, 1907 – July 12, 2001), nicknamed Kanson Fe, was the Haitian president from 1950 to 1956. Early life Paul Eugène Magloire ne Paul Vincent Magloire, 30th president of Haiti and 33rd head of state (ephemeral mili ...

. He and his wife

Gwen Grant Mellon Gwen Grant Mellon (July 22, 1911 – November 29, 2000) was an American medical missionary and the founder and administrator of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti in Deschapelles, Haiti. As a single mother she worked as a riding instructor on a dud ...

opened a hospital they named Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in

, Haiti in 1956. When it opened, the facility had two operating rooms, a laboratory, X-ray facilities, a pharmacy, and had its own water system, electric power, machine and vehicle shops, laundry and food services. In 2010 and again in 2021, the hospital played an essential role in earthquake relief.

Services

By 1970, the facility had grown from 80 to 120 beds and provided annually about 60,000 outpatient visits, 3500 admissions and 2500 operations. By 2010, the facility in Haiti had expanded to include 12 health clinics that were staffed by Haitian volunteers; they offered and preventive and community education and focused on women's health and HIV treatment and prevention. At the time the hospital performed about 2,000 surgical procedures each year and served about 60,000 people as outpatients, and about 100,000 people were treated each year at the satellite clinics. In 2015 it spent about $6 million on hospital operations and about $400,000 on the clinics.

History

Services

References

External links

Further reading