The Growth of St Vincent's
In 150 years, St Vincent’s hospital has grown from a 22-bed facility to one of Australia’s leading teaching and research hospitals with a world-renowned reputation in cardiac care, HIV/AIDS medicine, lung and bone marrow transplantation and cancer treatment. The hospital has trained medical students for almost 100 years and first began training students from the University of Sydney in 1923. The hospital’s affiliation with USYD was a significant move at the time and the Sisters believed the hospital must be a teaching institution to maintain the high standard of care. This relationship lasted 50 years and St Vincent’s then became a teaching hospital for the University of New South Wales. Today, 250 students work with clinicians and researchers on the St. Vincent’s Campus.
Source: St. Vincent’s Hospital: 150 Years of Charity, Care and Compassion by Anne-Maree Whitaker.
Image courtesy of St Vincent’s Campus Archives.
Hospital Ghost: The Grey Lady
St. Vincent’s Hospital had their own bona fide ghost who used to help out in the wards. Although it’s been years since the Grey Nurse was last sighted, nurses used to recall when things would mysteriously get done while they were on night duty such as adjustments to drips. Many patients have also told of the calming presence of the Sister in Grey by their bedside which gave them much comfort.
“The Grey Lady. She was really a nun. Our saying was she leapt over the wall and married a doctor. And she came back in reparation…she has done remarkable things in this building. Years ago people had drip sets that weren't as full proof as the ones we've got now…If you let them run through, you let air into the vein and that's not a good combination. Often the patients would report to us that the nun in grey turned off the drip.” Sister Anthea Groves
Source: St. Vincent’s Hospital: 150 Years of Charity, Care and Compassion by Anne-Maree Whitaker.
Image courtesy of St Vincent’s Campus Archives.
Gangland Sydney
Darlinghurst was the epicenter of Sydney’s underworld. When Parliament passed the Pistol Licensing Act in 1927, it placed mandatory gaol terms for those caught with an unlicensed firearm so criminal gangs began using cut-throat razors because it was easily assessable. In one month alone, St Vincent’s Hospital’s Casualty Department stitched up 22 razor-attack victims.
Queens of the Underworld Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh led their gangs through violent turf wars during the 1920s and 30s. On most weekends, members of their gangs were bought into St. Vincent’s with unexplained gun and knife wounds. At one stage, the ladies shared a ward although they were not the best of friends.
“We've always had the girls from the Cross, the ladies from the streets brought in here...Borg, he was shot to pieces. We had to put him together in the old casualty down here one night cos they attacked him in the Cross and the police just bundled his body parts and bought him in. So those days don't come about now. We don't seem to have a lot of the shoot ups.” Sister Anthea Groves
Source: St. Vincent’s Hospital: 150 Years of Charity, Care and Compassion by Anne-Maree Whitaker.
Image courtesy of State Records NSW
AIDS
The first Australian AIDS patients were diagnosed at St. Vincent’s in 1983 and the first transfusion-related case was also diagnosed there in 1984. With close proximity to the Cross, the hospital was treating about half the country’s HIV/AIDS patients. It took nearly a decade for significant treatments to advance but the death rate from HIV/AIDS fell by 80 per cent in the late nineties. Today St. Vincent’s is a national tertiary referral and research centre for HIV/AIDS.
Source: St. Vincent’s Hospital: 150 Years of Charity, Care and Compassion by Anne-Maree Whitaker.
Image courtesy of St Vincent’s Campus Archives.
First Heart Transplant
In February 1984 Dr Victor Chang performed the first heart transplant in Australia under the National Cardiac Transplant program on 39 year old Peter Apthorpe. The operation was a success and Apthorpe said, “Six weeks ago I couldn’t walk up these two steps, and today I walked from the hospital into the city…”. The second transplant recipient was 14 year old Fiona Coote who became a household name. Today, the Heart-Lung Transplant Unit is among the best in the world with record patient survival rates.
Source: St. Vincent’s Hospital: 150 Years of Charity, Care and Compassion by Anne-Maree Whitaker.
Image courtesy of St Vincent’s Campus Archives.
Alcohol & Drugs
In 1982, St. Vincent’s Hospital opened the Gorman House – a residential, non-medical detoxification unit. Kings Cross has long been associated with alcohol and drug problems and the hospital’s Alcohol and Drug Unit is in constant demand. The Gorman House provides in patient care for the marginalized and disadvantaged with demand often outstripping capacity. Initially alcohol abuse was the reason for admissions but illicit drug use are currently on the rise.
“…it's a real problem here though. These people come in at 4, 5 o'clock in the morning - they really need security covered to help them calm down, I suppose from an episode of drugs. We can't let them out until we can justify that they can cope or someone responsible come and pick them up but a lot of people don't want to pick them up.” Sister Anthea Groves
Source: St. Vincent’s Hospital: 150 Years of Charity, Care and Compassion by Anne-Maree Whitaker.
Image courtesy of St Vincent’s Campus Archives.
