The Orient Hospital ( ar, مستشفى الشرق) was a Lebanese non-profit hospital located in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

and maintained for the care of low-income patients. It was founded in 1947 by Dr.

Sami Ibrahim Haddad , honorific_suffix = M.D., I.S.S., F.A.C.S., G.M.B. , image = shaddad.jpg , imagesize = 200px , birth_date = , birth_place = Jaffa, Palestine , death_date = , death_place = Beirut, Lebanon , occupation = Doctor, Surgeon , na ...

, a well-known physician and historian of medicine. It closed in 1976 during the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

Location and description

The 54-bed hospital overlooked

Saint George Bay Saint George Bay (french: Golfe de Saint-Georges), also known as the Bay of Beirut, is located on the northern coast of the city of Beirut in Lebanon. The Beirut River empties into the bay. Etymology The bay is named after Saint George, a pop ...

in Beirut. The main structure was a renovated five-story building with a newly built annex for nurses. The ground floor consisted of admissions, a reception hall enclosed by consultation offices, a medical laboratory and an OPD. The second floor was contained surgical beds and the third floor housed the medical patients. The fourth floor consisted of a single

operating theater An operating theater (also known as an operating room (OR), operating suite, or operation suite) is a facility within a hospital where surgical operations are carried out in an aseptic environment. Historically, the term "operating theater" refe ...

and its sterilizing equipment as well as an adjacent 50-seat lecture hall. The fifth floor, surrounded by a terrace, served as living quarters for interns. The hospital had four departments, urology and urosurgery, neuro-surgery, obstetrics and radiology. External specialists were allowed to admit and operate upon their patients at the hospital. It also had a superlative library containing a great number of manuscripts on a wide range of subjects such as Arabic medicine, biology, religion, numismatics, history, literature and Arabic geometry and astronomy. The collection, including the Annual Reports of the Orient Hospital, is now in the Sami Ibrahim Haddad Memorial Library.

Final years

The hospital was run and administered by its founder, Sami Ibrahim Haddad, until his death in 1957 and then by his sons, Dr. Farid Sami Haddad and Dr. Fuad Sami Haddad. The Orient Hospital closed its doors in 1976, at the beginning of the

. It was later demolished by its owners to prevent gunmen occupying it, as it was in the heavily fought over area of downtown

References

* *{{cite web, url=http://www.facs-lebanon.org/History/Part2, website=American College of Surgeons History Article, title=Orient Hospital Hospitals established in 1947 Hospital buildings completed in 1947 Hospitals in Lebanon Organizations established in 1947 Organizations disestablished in 1976 1947 establishments in Lebanon