nswering the call to care formore than100years.A

T H E H O S P I T A L O F S A I N T R A P H A E L

Hospital ofSaint RaphaelA member of the Saint Raphael Healthcare System

SPONSORED BY:

WWW.SRHS.ORG

Answering thecall to care

i

100 years of hope and healing at

the hospital of saint raphael

Hospital ofSaint RaphaelA member of the Saint Raphael Healthcare System

ii

MISSION OF THE SAINT RAPHAELHEALTHCARE SYSTEM

The mission of the Saint Raphael Healthcare System, sponsored by

the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, is to care for and improve

the health of our patients, with compassion and with a special

concern for the underserved, poor and elderly.

MISSION OF THE HOSPITAL OF SAINT RAPHAEL

The Hospital is a community teaching hospital and health care

resource sponsored and guided by the values of the Sisters of Charity

of Saint Elizabeth and of the Roman Catholic Church. Our mission is

to witness, share in and promote excellence in the healing ministry of

Jesus Christ. We are committed to preserving the dignity and well-

being of each individual, and to assuring that every person is treated

according to the principles of charity and justice. We accept the

Gospel challenge that prompted our founders of the sponsoring

congregation, Saint Vincent DePaul, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and

Mother Mary Xavier Mehegan, by pledging every loving service in our

power to reach out to those in need of our services.

THE MISSION VALUES ON WHICH WERE FOUNDED AND THAT GUIDE ALL DECISIONS AND ACTIONS

Charity Justice Service StewardshipDignity Excellence Integrity

Our Mission

iii

edicated to past and present Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, employees, physicians, trustees,

volunteers and Auxilians. Each of our first 100 years of excellence is because of you, and we commit to

carrying on your legacy.

This book is based on information and recollections from many sources. These include wonderful old

scrapbooks, memorabilia, reports and other materials from Saint Raphaels archives, materials and

photographs from the archives of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, taped oral histories of persons

now deceased, and countless interviews. Every effort has been made to validate dates and other facts,

some of which vary by source.

EDITORS NOTE

Working on this book has had special significance. I joined Saint

Raphaels in late 1981 to help plan its 75th birthday observance, never

thinking I would celebrate the 100th as well! But my roots are deeper

than that. While working on the 75th, I organized years of accumulated

materials into what evolved as Saint Raphaels archives. In the

process, I learned that the New Haven archi tectural firm of Brown &

von Beren, led by my great-grandfather and then grandfather, designed

the hospitals first new construction, the Saint Marys Building. It is an

honor and privilege to be part of this organization, to have learned

from the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, and to have worked side

by side with extraordinary colleagues.

Published 2008

Editor: Cindy von Beren, vice president/Corporate Affairs

A special thanks to the many individuals who were part of the

research, writing, editing, fact-checking and production of this

history, with particular gratitude to:

Patricia Mich, art director

Jennifer Duarte, graphic designer

Michael Dabbraccio, staff photographer

Christine Mora, director, Public Relations & Marketing

Pat Wales, director, Health Sciences Library

And to contributing writer Alix Boyle and contributing writer/editor

Cynthia Wolfe Boynton.

D

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INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 Beginningsa hospital is born

CHAPTER 2 William Francis Verdi, M.D.

CHAPTER 3 The first 30 years

CHAPTER 4 Saint Raphael School of Nursing

CHAPTER 5 World War II

CHAPTER 6 The 1940s and 1950s

CHAPTER 7 Sister Louise Anthony Geronemo

CHAPTER 8 Saint Raphael Auxiliary and volunteers

CHAPTER 9 1960s and 1970s

CHAPTER 10 1980s and 1990s

CHAPTER 11 Sister Anne Virginie Grimes

CHAPTER 12 Advancing the science and art of medicine

CHAPTER 13 Entering the new millennium

CHAPTER 14 2007: A milestone anniversary to remember

CHAPTER 15 The Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth

Contentsanswering the Call to Care

1If Saint Raphael s future is anything like its history, great things are ahead for all of us.

Saint RaphaelHealthcare SystemPresident and CEO David W. Benfer, FACHE

Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth General Superior SisterMaureen Shaughnessy,chairperson of the Saint RaphaelHealthcare System Board of Trustees.

2Introduction100 years of Caring

W hen the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth and Catholic HospitalAssociation agreed on January 30, 1907, to join forces and found

Saint Raphaels, their goal was to create a hospital that all members

of the community could call their own. It was to be a place where

every patientregardless of race, religion, ethnicity or income

levelreceived the best care, with the most compassionate touch.

A century later, this caring mission still guides Saint Raphaels, and

is what our physicians, nurses and other professionals strive to give

patients every day. Our long history of medical excellence, and the

roots weve established in Greater New Haven, made us proud and

excited to celebrate Saint Raphaels 100th birthday in 2007.

Thank you for opening this book and celebrating this milestone

with us. Within these pages, youll find great old photo graphs, facts

and memories about both the hospital and its place in the Greater

New Haven community. Its a community that has embraced and

supported Saint Raphaels for each of these 100 years. And for this,

we are most grateful.

Youll see in Chapter 1 that at the same time the Hospital of Saint

Raphael opened its doors, both the community and the field of

medicine were changing. Most people at the start of the 20th century

received medical care in their homes from family doctors. Family

members were expected to take care of loved ones. Hospitals at that

time were said to be for the poor and the friendless.

Yet as medicine advanced in the early 1900sthe beginnings of

modern surgery; the development of vaccines; an understanding of

how germs spread and the need for safe public health practices

people came to realize that hospitals were the best and safest places for

the delivery of increasingly sophisticated medical care.

Ready to meet that new demand for hospital care in New Haven

was Saint Raphaels. A 1913 New Haven Union newspaper article

praised Saint Raphaels for offering the best scientific medical

treatment available, calling the hospital a pioneer.

One hundred-plus years later, these phrases still describe

Saint Raphaels.

As you go through this book, youll see stories and photo graphs

showing how Saint Raphaels has grown to match advances in

medicine; how Saint Raphael physicians were among the first to

perform many breakthrough procedures; how compassion, dignity

and respect for patients have always made the Saint Raphael

difference; and how Saint Raphaels has formed an enduring

partnership with the community.

We wish it had been possible to include the names of every

person, department, treatment and procedure thats made a

difference over our first century. For that, however, wed need a

book this size for each of the hospitals 100 years. Instead, weve

done our best to cull stories, memories and photographs that best

3The invitation to thecorner-stone placementfor the Saint MarysBuilding, and relatednews coverage.

4represent the spirit and achieve ments of

both our hospital and health providers.

Please read on and enjoy.

Caring for the sick is a divine trust, said

the Sisters who started and continue to

sponsor Saint Raphaels. As a faith-based

organization and one of four Catholic-

sponsored acute care hospitals in Connect i -

cut, Saint Raphaels holds firm to this belief,

which will un doubtedly con tinue for the

next 100 yearsand beyond.

Thank you for your belief, support and

trust in us.

If Saint Raphaels future is anything like

its history, great things are ahead for all of us.

Early patient ward.

On behalf of theCatholic HospitalAssociation, urologistFrancis H. Reilly, M.D.,wrote to the Sisters of Charity of SaintElizabeth, requestingtheir help.

The silver trowel used to lay the cornerstone for the Saint MarysBuilding (below).

In Hebrew, Raphe means heal and El means God . Thus together, Rapha-el means God heals.

6Chapter 1ll over the United States, the early 1900s was a time of new

beginnings. New Haven was no different, as Italian, Irish and other

immigrants came to work for local factories and start new lives.

Downtown New Haven was bustling with tradesmen, trolleys and

tenements, and on every street corner were new accents, voices

and dreams.

Not everyone, however, embraced this changing, more colorful

community. Institutions begun by white, Protestant menthose who

founded the citywerent always eager to welcome those with

different faiths, faces and cultures. Doctors of Irish, Catholic, Jewish

and Italian descent quickly discovered that because of their faith or

nationality, they werent welcomed to practice at New Havens two

existing hospitals, Grace and New Haven (today Yale-New Haven).

Many of New Havens new, diverse residents found the same

unwelcoming attitude for themselves and loved ones when

professional medical care was needed.

BOTH GROUPS NEEDED A HOSPITAL TO CALL THEIR OWN

This need prompted William Francis Verdi, M.D., and 13 other

physicians to form the Catholic Hospital Association. Not all 14 men

in the group were Catholic. But they all had a vision to create a faith-

based hospital where any doctor could offer careand any person

be cared forregardless of race, religion, culture or financial status.

Knowing they could not take on such an enormous task alone, the

doctors approached the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth. At the

time, the Sisters were already running Saint John the Evangelist

School in New Haven. Renowned for their charitable work in both

education and health care, their home base was in Convent Station,

N.J., and they operated schools, hos pitals and orphanages in New

York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. That the Sisters took on

helping build a new hospital despite many other commitments is

testament to the intrepid faith and far-reaching vision of 81-year-old

Reverend Mother Mary Xavier Mehegan.

Not only did Mother Xavier agree to manage and help staff the

hospital, but she mortgaged the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse in

New Jersey for much-needed funds.

The Catholic Hospital Association had already purchased the Barnes

residence, a stately home at 1442 Chapel St., with $23,000 in donations

raised from local individuals, organizations and clergy. But more was

needed to convert the home into a hospital, plus build a new structure

on adjoining property. Initial estimates indicated it would cost $125,000

to $135,000 to construct the new building.

ABEGINNINGS

7It was a huge sum for the time, but small

compared to the grandness of what they

hoped to accomplish. Mother Xavier

believed that if the Sisters held the deed to

the property and were in a position of

financial control, they would never be

forced to compromise their mission. This

mission, the Sisters and doctors agreed,

would be to receive and care for all

patients without regard to race, creed or

color; to extend charity to the sick, the poor

and the needy, as required; and to open to all

members of the medical profession an

institution in which they could administer to

their own patients.

To make this happen, four Sisters arrived in

New Haven on Feb. 2, 1907. Sisters Mary

Irmina McDonough, Mary Eustelle Kivlehan,

Rose Ulrica Farley and Alice Veronica Flynn

were charged with taking the first steps to

create the new hospital, which the

Corporation of the Sisters of Charity of Saint

Elizabeth had already decided would be

named Saint Raphaels.

Its not documented exactly why the

Sisters chose this name. But its speculated

that Saint Raphael refers to the Archangel

Raphael, who is the Catholic patron saint of

healing. Theres also meaning within the

word Raphael. In Hebrew, Raphe means

heal, and El means God. Thus together,

Raphael means God heals. By giving this

name to the new hospital, the Sisters

acknow ledged their belief that God heals

through medicine, and that caring for the

sick is a divine trust.

WORK BEGINS IN EARNEST

With faith and funds in hand, work to get the

Hospital of Saint Raphael up and running

began almost immediately upon the Sisters

arrival, and took two paths.

On July 28, 2007, ground was broken for

the five-story Saint Marys Building, which

would not be ready for two years. So to

accommodate patients in the meantime, the

Sisters focused on the Barnes residence.

Bedrooms in the Barnes home were

turned into nursing wards, and the front

parlor converted to a chapel. The kitchen

and other parts of the building were left to

perform their regular functions, and in less

than a year the 12-bed hospital was ready

to open.

Mrs. Winifred Dugan, 70, was admitted as

Saint Raphaels first patient on Jan. 10, 1908. In

large, elegant script, the hospitals first ledger

lists patients names, ages, countries of origin,

occupations, diagnoses, physicians and out -

comes. Mrs. Dugan, from Ireland, was ad -

mitted for apoplexy, cared for by James Flynn,

M.D., and died in the hospital on May 28. The Saint Marys Building.

Barnes residence(foreground) with the Saint Marys Building in the background.

However, according to the

ledger, she had the facility to

herself for more than a month.

This was probably because

during the 19th and early 20th

centuries, most doctors made

house calls, and ill family

members were generally cared

for at home. Hospitals were

reserved for the indigent,

seriously ill, or those who did not have

loved ones to care for them. However, when a fire broke out on Feb.

28, 1908, at nearby Grace Hospital, 39 patients were carried from the

flaming structure to Saint Raphaels.

Newspaper reports called the fire a providential happen ing, with

Saint Raphaels response helping win community acceptance and

dispelling any prejudices against a Catholic-sponsored facility. The

people of New Haven were blessed and fortunate to have a new

hospital open in its hour of need. If not for Saint Raphaels, surely

more patients would have died, newspaper reports claimed.

At the same time renovations were going on at the Barnes

residence, ground was being broken on land next door for a larger,

more suitable building.

A 1913 tribute to Saint Raphaels published in The New Haven

Union looked back at the time:

Prior to 1906, the hospitals of New Haven maintained a

position bordering on a closed corporation. For once a

patient entered a hospital here, the relatives whose presence

and sympathy would have aided in their recovery were

debarred from visiting. These detriments were realized

and often protested against, but without avail until 1907

Though the Sisters of Charity assigned

to start Saint Raphaels exemplified

the noble ideals of self-denial and

charity, they were down-to-earth

and pragmatic when it came to

accomplishing their goals.

Before Saint Raphaels ever opened

its doors, the Sisters sought financial aid

from the State of Connecticut. They

must have made a compelling argument

on the need for the hospital, because

the Connecticut General Assembly

appropriated $2,500 to Saint Raphaels.

The provisions were that the hospital

have a competent staff of physicians

and surgeons and be in operation

for at least three months. It was the

first of many significant state grants

over the years that would help Saint

Raphaels grow.

At left, a newspaperclipping about earlyfundraising activities.

SaINt RaphaEl fIRStS

First buildingBarnes residence at 1442 Chapel St. It consisted of 12 beds, a pharmacy, laboratoryand an operating room and was staffed by16 employees.

First patient70-year-old Winifred Dugan admitted forapoplexy on Jan. 10, 1908. She stayedhospitalized until she died of the conditionon May 28.

First surgeryCesarean sectiona difficult and dangerousoperation, a newspaper reportedperformed by William Verdi, M.D., on Mrs. JohnLadino of Palmer Street. Mother and child didsplendidly, the newspaper announced.

First ambulancesThere were twoone horse-drawn, one electric.

First administratorSister Mary Irmina McDonough

Among the donations listed in the first annual report (1910) A total of $1,050 donated by1,050 people. Each gave $1.

Ten turkeys Crate of oranges Three cases of lemon soda A Bermuda lily Ten gallons of ice cream

when Saint Raphaels became the pioneer in that new

curative methodcombining the best scientific medical

treatment, while allowing each patient to have his or her

own physician. Confidence in the minds of those they know

helps the invalids. Clergymen of their own faith and the

frequent presence of friends is always a consolation to the

sick. Then why deprive them of it? So a new era in the

management of hospitals born of a humanitarian regard for

the feelings of patients, as well as for the professional

treatment of their bodies, was established in this city when

Saint Raphaels hospital was built.

Perhaps the writer of this piece had been allowed to look at Saint

Raphaels patient ledger, and had seen the multiethnic, multicultural

population turning to the new hospital for care. Almost one-third of

the patients admitted to Saint Raphaels by 1910 were foreign-born

immigrants, with Sweden, England, Ireland, Germany and Italy some

of the many native countries listed. Patient occupations included

laundress, stenographer, baseball player, blacksmith, butler,

tinsmith, farmer, box maker, school boy and housewife, with

conditions as equally variedhernia, cesarean section, tongue

cancer, alcoholism, appendicitis, gunshot wound, breast cancer,

apoplexy, chronic diarrhea and goiter among them.

By many standards, it was a humble clientele. Yet the founding

Sisters and physicians were determined to make Saint Raphaels

anything but ordinary. The new Saint Marys Building, opened on

Feb. 22, 1909, was hailed in newspaper reports as a splendid

structure, and one of the most complete in New England. This

state-of-the-art facility boasted such new and modern features as an

electric elevator, electric lighting and a telephone on each floor. And

its latest sanitary appointments included one that attracted national

attention: All walls and ceilings have rounded corners to make them

perfectly sanitary in every respect.

The brick building set a standard for medical excellence that

would continue throughout all of Saint Raphaels first 100 years.

Even at this early date, Saint Raphaels patient rooms and technology

were designed to not just offer the most advanced care, but the

safest and most comfortable care, too.

The Saint Marys building boasted between 125 and 135 beds

(accounts vary) in nursing wards and a handful of private rooms.

Staying in the public wards cost $7 per week. Private rooms included

the first nurse call buttons which, when pushed, would cause a small

red flag to rise outside the patients door. Each floor also had two

toilet rooms with large bath apartments, a large kitchen connected

to a dumb waiter, and a linen room.

11

Saint Raphaels two-room operating

department was termed one of the most

up-to-date and modern of its kind in the

country and the most perfect in every

detail in this country or abroad. The main

operating room was well-lighted with a

large glass roof, tile walls and marble

floors. There was also a room where

patients were etherized, a room for

instrumental sterilization, and two padded

cells for delirious patients.

Also revolutionary was that the entire

building was fireproof with concrete floors,

iron stairs and well-planned and arranged

fire escapes, newspapers wrote. The

basement contained a small, brick-lined

morgue, a boiler room, laundry and cooking

department, plus nurses and doctors

dining rooms.

Yet more than physical growth was

taking place. To assure the best-trained

nurses were caring for Saint Raphael

patients, the hospital organized and opened

The 14 Catholic and non-Catholic physicians who on May 3, 1906, founded the Catholic Hospital Association and with the Sisters of Charity of

Saint Elizabeth eventually founded Saint Raphaels were:

Leonard Bacon, M.D.

William Butler, M.D.

Jeremiah Cohane, M.D.

James Flynn, M.D.

Norton Hotchkiss, M.D.

John Luby, M.D.

Stephen Maher, M.D.

Edward McCabe, M.D.

Matthew OConnor, M.D.

Francis Reilly, M.D.

William Sheehan, M.D.

John Sullivan, M.D.

William Verdi, M.D.

Frank Whittemore, M.D.

12

the Training School for Nurses (Read about the Saint Raphael School

of Nursing in Chapter 4.). To support the hospitals many endeavors,

a Ladies Auxiliary also formed. (Turn to Chapter 8 for more on

the Auxiliary.)

Presiding over these many dramatic changes was Sister Mary

Irminaone of the four original sistersserving as hospital

superintendent. The motto she and the founding physicians adapted

was ad majorem dei gloriamLatin for the greater glory of God. They

had the saying carved into Saint Marys cornerstone to guide them. And

its obvious how all believed in the motto, and clearly saw the need for

the hospital and its caring mission.

What they didnt see, however, was how quickly Saint Raphaels

would grow beyond any of their visions.

13

Like the way Mozartlooked at a piano andknew how to play, (Verdi) looked at the humanbody and knew his wayaround it. There is greathonor and nobility in being a physician. To heal and to serve is a real calling. William Verdi had that calling.

14

Chapter 2WILLIAM FRANCIS VERDI, M.D.

f the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth provided the greatest group

influence on the early hospital, the greatest individual influence was

William Francis Verdi, M.D.

Verdi was an internationally renowned surgeon whose patients

ranged from the president of Yale University to his gardeners wife.

For more than half a century, Verdi provided superb medical care to

all who needed him, regardless of their ability to pay. He combined a

dexterous pair of hands with an intuitive gift for knowing what was

wrong, and how to best fix it.

The surgeon is concernedintensely concernedwith the

recovery of the patient, Verdi once wrote. He is interested in

pulling the patient through. And he suffers as the family suffers. A

tragedy is never taken more at heart than by the surgeon. It could not

be otherwise for a good doctor.

Described as a regal and impeccably dressed man, he is

listed as being 5-foot-7, and 165 pounds on a 1917 hunting license. At

the time he was in his 40s, and despite his very public stature within

the community, he was a very private man. He so disliked publicity

that he refused to be interviewed for a 1926 newspaper article about

his surgical accomplishments. He instead referred the reporter to his

brother-in-law, then-Connecticut Secretary of State Francis A.

Pallotti, who provided all the information.

He was most comfortable at work. Old surgical logs show him

performing as many as 10 operations a dayan amazing number by

todays standards. He preferred an operating room with natural light

and demanded silence while he worked. He was also, in every sense

of the term, a general surgeon, operating on just about every part of

the body during his almost 60 pioneering years in the fieldvery

often under extreme or unusually challenging circumstances.

Those who worked with Verdi also remember him being a great

admirer of Saint Raphael nurses for the skill they obtained at the

Saint Raphael School of Nursing and then showed in the operating

room. There, he furthered most of their medical educations, teaching

various nuances about the human body and how it could be healed.

This ability to mentor, coupled with Verdis great skill as a surgeon,

spurred the Yale University School of Medicine to ask Verdi to help

train students at his alma mater.

Eventually, he became involved in almost every aspect of

life in New Haven, from city planning to serving on its school board.

He was also a big supporter of the artsmusic especially. He was

known for the musical parties he and his sister Loretta hosted at

their home. One soiree, held for American Surgical Association

fellows who came to New Haven for a conference, was reported to

include a performance by three renowned operatic voices from the

Metropolitan Opera House and Philadelphia Opera Company.

I

According to a newspaper society page, Mayo Clinic founder Charles

Mayo, M.D., and his wife were among Verdis houseguests.

His great-niece Victoria DiSesa, a New Haven attorney and former

Saint Raphael trustee, remembers hearing family stories about Verdis

parties. Her sister Susan owns the piano from the music room. He

served lavish dinners and lived an elegant life, DiSesa recalled.

Above all, however, he was a surgeon, said medical historian

Sherwin Nuland, M.D.: How good was he? He was so gifted that

patients came from everywhere to have him operate on them. Verdi

had more talent than anyone at that time.

EARLY YEARS

William Francis Verdi was born Guglielmo

Francesco Verdi on Nov. 27, 1872, in

Montechiaro Vico Equense, Naples, Italy,

the son of Domenic and Rose Ruggiero

Verdi. Domenic was a sailor in the Italian

navy, and when Verdi was 18 months old,

Domenic decided to bring his family to the

United States. They settled in New Haven, with

Domenic taking a job as a foreman in a rubber

factory. Verdis brother Antonie also made the ocean

trip, with their sisters Rose, Mary and Loretta born in

New Haven in quick succession.

Although Verdi liked school and was a good student, he quit

Hillhouse High School to take a job in a barber shop to help support

his family. It was a move that alarmed school officials, who must

have seen Verdis potential.

Determined to get Verdi to return to high school, the Hillhouse

principal went to Verdis house and refused to leave until Verdi agreed.

It may be said that the world owes the surgical ability and genius of

Verdi to the insistence of Principal James D. Whitmore, wrote the

New Haven Journal-Courier.

In 1891, Verdi became the first native Italian to graduate from

Hillhouse. Fascinated with medicineand because in those days

students did not need to attend college before medical schoolVerdi

went right from Hillhouse to Yale Medical School (todays Yale

University School of Medicine). He paid his tuition by working as an

Italian inter preter in the New Haven Courthouse and teaching English

to immigrants. Records show that when he graduated Yale in 1894, he

considered becoming a priest or a lawyer.

Verdi (far left) at the age of 18 in the barbershop.

15

Instead, he enrolled in a surgical intern -

ship, and worked to earn enough money to

travel to Germany and Austria. Physicians

there were performing ad vanced surgical

procedures only talked about in New Haven.

Thus began a series of routine summer visits

to Europe, furthering know ledge of his field.

Yet New Haven was his home and where

he wanted to be. He opened his first

practice at 172 John Street. Quickly, his

reputation as both a skilled and caring

physician began to grow.

Like other physicians of the day, he made

house calls by horse and buggy and

performed surgery atop kitchen tables, or

on his own portable one. Instruments were

sterilized on wood-burning kit chen stoves.

Old receipts show Verdi charged $100 for

an appendectomy. And soon, he was able

to hire a chauffeur. Egisto Cinquini

(known as Gisto), whose drivers license

lists him as 20 in 1910, would work for

Verdi for many years.

The story we were always told

growing up is that Egisto would drive

Verdi to a home in the middle of the

night and then remove one of the head

lamps from the car and hold it up while

Verdi operated, remembered Verdis

great-niece Susan DiSesa Sheeline.

When Verdi was finished, he would say

to Egisto, You can put the lamp down now. And Egisto would reply,

I cant; my arm is stuck.

Despite Verdis John Street office, receipts for both horse shoeing

and automobile parts suggest Verdi must have been constantly on the

road and at work. Indeed, historian Nuland believed part of Verdis

reason for starting a hospital was weariness of traveling: He wanted

easy access to a hospital of his own.

THE RIGHT TIME FOR A MOVE

At the same time, the idea of hospitals being a more appropriate

setting for medical care was increasingly accepted.

Unfortunately, as an Italian-American and a Catholic, Verdi was

not accepted at New Havens existing hospitals, particularly New

Haven Hospital. Anti-Catholic discrimination was not just common,

but rabid at the time.

16

Verdi in the operatingroom, late 1930s.

As a founding physician, Verdi was a driving force in not just creating the Hospital

of Saint Raphaels physical structure, but in helping create its constitution and bylaws. He

donated $500 of his own money to the new hospital, and was chairman of the group that

raised money to fund the initial construction. Apparently, he was an effective fundraiser. An

old newspaper article noted Verdi was able to convince an anonymous donor to give $4,500

toward building a modern operating room. The donation was a fortune at the time.

In his day-to-day work at Saint Raphaels, Verdi was

surgeon-in-chief. People marveled at his hands, and their

almost mystical ability to diagnose and heal. He had the

lightest touch, says Mary Sexton, a long-time Saint Raphael

nurse who cared for many of Verdis patients. When he

examined you, you could scarcely feel it.

The late Mario Garofalo, M.D., Saint Raphaels chief of

anesthesia from 1940 to 1972, was also in awe of Verdis

talent. He was the most versatile surgeon I had ever

known, Garofalo wrote in tribute to Verdi. He did

neurosurgery, chest surgery, abdominal surgery, gynecology,

orthopedics, gastrointestinal surgery, plastic surgery. He

also extracted teeth when it was necessary. He couldnt

understand why (dentists) used so many instruments, while

he got along with one. The only procedure I had never seen

him do was tonsillectomy.

This quirky fact is almost legendary at Saint Raphaels

a bit of did-he-or-didnt-he trivia. Nulands take was it

might have been the only operation Verdi didnt perform.

The reason: At the time, tonsillectomies could lead to

uncontrollableand often fatalbleeding.

In speeches and newspaper articles, Verdi himself attributed

his hands and surgical abilities to his mother, Rose. My mother

gave me a pair of dexterous hands, he was quoted as saying.

That inheritance has been the most valuable possession of

Three of Verdis many honors for medical

achievements came from Italys King

Emmanuele in recognition of his high

standing in the medical profession and

services to Italian soldiers in the interest

of humanity. In 1914, Verdi received the

title of Chevalier of the Order of the

Crown of Italy, and was later raised to the

rank of Commeneatore. In 1929, he was

named Grande Officiale of the Order of

the Crown.

Writings and drawingsfrom Verdis notebooks.

18

19

my life. She could knit, crochet, sewin

fact, do anything with her hands. She gave

me some of her skill.

Verdi honored his mother in 1927 by

donating $10,000 in her name to the Yale

Endowment Fund for a New Haven student

to attend Yale Medical School. He also

donated $10,000 in her name for an organ at

St. Michaels Church. Its still in use today.

Generally, however, it was Verdi being

honored. Connecticut Gov. Simeon Baldwin

named him state sur geon general; he was

consulting surgeon for Choate School in

Wallingford; and, in 1913, he was elected

president of the New Haven Medical Associ -

ation. In 1916, he was admitted to the

prestigious New England Surgical Society

a group exclusive to the 100 best surgeons

in the region.

Verdi was as great as his reputation and

more so. He even operated with Carmalt,

said historian Nuland, referring to former

Yale University School of Medicine Dean

William H. Carmalt. Carmalt was an

excellent leader. But he was not as great a

surgeon as Verdi. They operated together

on Saturday after noons at New Haven

Hospital, even though Verdi didnt have staff

privileges there. They were doing big stuff:

remov ing the stomach or a kidney. Today

these things are fairly routine. But back

then, it was compli cated. The fact that he

was invited into the New England Surgical

Society shows he was held in huge esteem.

He was enormously talented, and his results

were excellent for that time.

As wonderful as these years were,

however, they werent without down times.

For reasons that arent clearly documented

but appear to be over use of the operating

room, Verdi resigned from Saint Raphaels in

July 1910, citing the many disturbances

between the hospital management and the

Medical Board. Thankfully, whatever those

disturbances were, they cleared fairly

quickly. Two years later, Verdi rejoined the

Saint Raphael staff, resumed his old

position as chief surgeon and accepted a

seat on the hospital Board of Trustees. After

this, only service in France from July 1918

Verdi making rounds with his nephew, Orlando Pelliccia, M.D.,and Sister Columba.Circa 1949.

A LONG, DISTINGUISHED CAREERVerdis dedication to medicine, New Haven and helping people live better, longer lives continued throughout his career. He was

recognized for it many times, in many forums. But his receipt of the Advertising Club of New Havens Sixth Gold Medal Award

in 1940 for outstanding service to humanity is worth noting. More than 600 people attended the dinner to see Connecticut

Gov. Raymond E. Baldwin honor Verdi. But its not these facts that make the event interesting. What makes it stand out is that it

was one of the very few times Verdi spokein typically self-effacing fashionabout his career. The speech was printed in the

New Haven Journal-Courier. An excerpt:

As I thoughtfully review my career, I am impressed by the realization that I have responded to an environment created here in New

Haven many decades ago. It is true that I may have been endowed through inheritance with certain faculties. I constantly recall that my

mother was blessed with extraordinary deftness. Her hands did what her mind willed quickly and without apparent effort. That gift

probably was passed on, and I am grateful for that blessing. However, it has occurred to me frequently that if I had been brought to

On June 20, 1945,medical staff membersgathered outside thehospital after a surpriseparty to honor Verdi. He gave copies of this photograph to all who attended thecelebration, which Verdi called one of the happiest surprisesof my life. Verdi is the 16th man from the left, standing. Hes holding his handsbehind his back.

21

another community, it is quite possible that I might have become a stone mason, a

street car motorman or a bricklayer.

These are all honorable occupations. I mean no disparagement of them. I wish

only to convey my conviction that it was the environment of this community which

inspired me almost forced me into a profession which is continuously

conspicuous for services to others.

Even as a young boy living in a humble home with Old World parents, I was aware

of the tremendous prestige and influence of one of the worlds greatest

universities. I became aware at an early age of the opportunity which a community

like this affords. But as the sense of opportunity came to me, I was also conscious of

the obligations which accompany such opportunity.

In accepting this honor, I wish to express the ardent hope that the same spirit

of friendliness, the same urge toward improve ment, the same understanding of our

natural interdependence which have characterized this city throughout its history

may continue and be an example among other communities of the best way in

which to live

to January 1919 during World War I would take him away from Saint

Raphaels. He was there to stay.

VERDIS TRULY GRAND ROUNDS

Back at the job and hospital he loved, Verdi worked seven days a week; rarely

took a vacation; and became famousif not somewhat infamousfor the way

he conducted patient rounds. Garofalo recorded a detailed account of these

truly grand rounds. Wrote Garofalo:

The performance would start at about 9 a.m. Gisto, his chauffeur, would

drive him to the entrance of H.S.R. In walked this tall, very handsome,

well-built man who was impeccably dressed and distin guished looking. As

he walked along, there was an aura of greatness about him.

Sister Columba would meet him at the entrance and put a flower in his

lapel. Then she escorted him, arm in arm, up to (the top floor of the hospital)

Private 6.

In the meantime, Dr. Allen, his ever-faithful and long-time assistant, prepared the

way and made sure that every detail was taken care of. The procession started, and

there followed floor nurses, central supply nurses, interns, residents, referring

physicians, etc. It was quite a spectacle. The entourage moved from one patients room

to another. Then they would descend to the next floor, until all the patients were seen.

Judging by the profound respect and affection Verdis coworkers appeared to have for him,

no one seemed to be put off by these regal displays. Perhaps this is because Verdi was as hard

working as he was gifted.

When emergency surgeries were needed at night, Verdi was often the first to respond. In

his mind, the patient came firstalways. If you didnt treat that patient well, hed go wild,

recalled the late surgeon Mario G. Conte, M.D., during a 1990 interview. If (you didnt follow

his rules) in the operating room, you got hell.

No wonder nurses and staff would shake in their bootsas many accounts recalled

when they saw Verdi coming.

At the outbreak of World War I, 46-year-old

Verdi volunteered his surgical skills to the U.S.

Army and was commissioned a Medical Corps

major. He served units near the front lines as

chief of the Chateau Thierry operating team

and later played an important part in caring

for men wounded uring the Battle of Meuse-

Argonne. While overseas, he helped pioneer

a new lung-chest operation that led to

countless saved lives on the battlefield. For

this and other accomplishments, he was

awarded a Distinguished Service Medal.

22

From left, JeremiahB. Sullivan, M.D.,Verdi, NurseMcKenna and JosephD. Russo, M.D.

23

Nurse Sexton, who in the 40s took care

of many of Verdis patients, remem bers

Verdi as being immaculate: Whatever he

was doing, he always did it perfectly,

whether it was surgery or his appearance.

He was a perfectionist and would scold

people if they didnt do the right thing.

He also deeply cared for people. Sexton

remembers one time when Verdi thought

she was too skinny and poured her a glass of

milk. When an emergency required surgery

in the middle of the night, Verdi would have

Gisto bring the staff rolls, bread, coffee and

pastries. Dr. Verdi was so good to the

nurses, Sexton said. Surgery and work

were his whole life. It gave him such

pleasure to see patients get well. He

instinctively knew what to do.

Former New Haven City Engineer

William Bolton shared with the New Haven

Evening Register a tale about Verdis

kindness. Bolton recalled how when he was

a former band leader, one of his musicians

needed an operation, but had no money

to pay for it. Verdi successfully operated

on the impoverished musiciana Yale

student named Rudy Valleeand refused

any payment.

Verdi performingsurgery. Circa 1942.

24

After Vallee became a famous crooner, he tried several times to pay for the operation, but Verdi continually

refused. Determined to pay in some way, Vallee appeared at Saint Raphaels one day and gave a private concert

for Verdis patients.

I am in love with my work, Verdi once remarked. If I had my life to live over again, Id follow the same

path. Friends ask me why I dont retire. Why, I couldnt retire! I love my work so much I want to be at it every

waking moment.

Nine years after that speech, in 1949, Verdi collapsed in the operating room. Many believe he suffered a

stroke. Sadly, he was unable to work again. In the last few years of his life, he allegedly suffered dementia.

Verdi died on Easter Sunday, April 21, 1957, at the age of 84. Yet it seems that for all of those last years,

Saint Raphaels was rarely out of his thoughts. Doctors, friends, family and community leaders made up a

steady stream of visitors. And the nurse who once cared for his patients, Mary Sexton, became his private

nurse at home.

In a bittersweet memory, Sexton recalled seeing Verdi sitting at the breakfast table during those last

years. He would pick up a butter knife, fork or fountain pen and go through the motions of cutting, suturing

and performing surgery. His hands remembered what his mind did not.

Verdi was absolutely intuitive, said his great-niece Susan DiSesa Sheeline. Like the way Mozart

looked at a piano and knew how to play, my great uncle looked at the human body and knew his way

around it. There is great honor and nobility in being a physician. To heal and to serve is a real calling.

William Verdi had that calling.

Verdi groomed his nephew, Orlando Pelliccia, Jr., M.D., to succeed him as Saint Raphaels surgery chief. Pelliccia took over this job in 1953, after being one

of the first Italian-Americans to attend the prestigious Choate School in Wallingford and then graduate from Yale University and Johns Hopkins Medical

School. Pelliccia was the son of Verdis sister Rose, Verdi Pelliccia, who worked as a bandage washer and surgical assistant during Verdis early years.

Relatives believe Pellicciawho fondly referred to Verdi as Uncle Nineyhad the same inherent gift for medicine as his uncle. And Verdi was

determined to make sure his nephew was a success. Medicine was in his blood, said Mary Pelliccia, M.D., of Madison, Dr. Pelliccias second wife.

(Verdi) adored Orlando, but was harder on him than the other doctors, because he recognized Orlandos potential. He wouldnt let Orlando get away

with anything, and Orlando never stopped being afraid of him.

the tiny seed sown in 1907 has flourished by God s grace

26

Chapter 3the first thirty years

ith doctors like William Verdi and a state-of-the-art medical facility,

Saint Raphaels quickly became the hospital of choice for many New

Haven residents. But success brought its own share of problems.

Just five years after opening its doors, the Hospital of Saint Raphael

was already bursting at the seams.

The Saint Marys Building could no longer accommodate the ever-

increasing number of patients turning to Saint Raphaels for care.

The School of Nursing dorm was at capacity with 40 students,

forcing staff to turn away qualified applicants. And the Saint Raphael

chapelessential to the institutionhad become too small to

accommodate the Sisters for daily Mass, let alone physicians, staff

and patients.

DAILY LIFE HAD BECOME A DAILY LOGJAM

The hospitals 1912 annual report shows Saint Raphaels caring for an

amazing 2,136 patients1,386 Catholics, 83 Hebrews, 653

Protestants and 14 of unknown religion. Following the caring

mission the Sisters of Charity established (and Saint Raphaels

continues today), much of this care was delivered free; 5,250 days

of free board and treatment, the report states.

Saint Raphaels was winning the heart of the community, as a

newspaper editorial from the time proves:

Although this hospital is the youngest institution of its

kind in the city, the amount of relief it has afforded those

sick and suffering, and its success from a medical

standpoint, cannot be over-estimated. The amount of free

treatment furnished to those unable to pay reflects

unbounded credit on Saint Raphaels staff and on the

humanitarian spirit of (its) management

No doubt many of the good feelings about the hospital came from

staff members themselves. It was an exciting time; a happy time,

with employees feeling like members of one big family. In the early

1900s, healthcare workers didnt have highly specialized roles as

they do today. There was a formal atmosphere and a rigid chain of

command. But like a family, everyone pitched in as necessary. In

crises, the cooks helped roll bandages. The bookkeeper chipped in

to help move patients. And when high tides and heavy rains made the

sewer system back up, everyone grabbed a mop. Employees worked

long and hard with little vacation and meager compensation. But the

Sisters living and working at the hospital inspired staff members to

give as selflessly as they did.

Although Saint Raphaels founding Sisters left no written account

of these early days, some history has been preserved, passed down

by word of mouth. Former Saint Raphael Administrator Sister Louise

Anthony shared some of these stories before she died in 1997. (Read

W

more about Sister Louise in Chapter 7.) On

a cassette recorded for the Saint Raphael

archives, Sister Louise talked about the

original Sisters first few years.

The Sisters lived in a makeshift apart -

ment in the Barnes mansion attic and had

nothing, Sister Louise explained. They sat

on orange crates. They didnt even have a

spoon. If they wanted a cup of coffee, they

had to stir it with a nail.

There was also no time for rest or

relaxation. During the day, the Sisters cared

for patients, plus cleaned and ran the

hospital. At night, they did all the hospital

laundryby hand. They strug gled and

they worked very hard, Sister Louise said.

World events also conspired to com -

pound the challenges Saint Raphaels was

facing. World War I raged from 1914-18, and

many physicians, interns and nurses

enlisted and served for several years. Saint

Raphael nurse Irene Flynn, School of

Nursing Class of 1916, was among the

Americans who died nursing the wounded

in France. In 1918, a virulent influenza

epidemic caused sick and dying patients to

crowd hospitals around the world,

including Saint Raphaels. The hospital

treated 196 cases in three months with 48

patients and two student nurses dying.

Yet with the same faith and gumption

that helped found Saint Raphaels, the hos -

pital continued to grow.Construction began

on a new four-story wing named the Saint

Ritas Pavilion in 1919. It opened in 1921,

increasing hospital capa city to 200

(accounts vary slightly). One of the first

facilities to devote entire floors (the second

and third) to private rooms, it also housed

the X-ray department, laboratory, labor

rooms and, from the mid-40s to mid-60s, the

convent. After the convent was relocated,

these rooms were transformed to deluxe

patient rooms with bathrooms, carpeting

and meals served on fine chinamore like a

hotel than a hospital.

For many patients, the Saint Rita rooms

felt like home. Not only was the dcor

home-like, but some people at this time

stayed hospitalized for several weeks,

months or even years. A newspaper account

in the late 1920s on the death of Charles P.

Bohan, who suffered from paralysis, said he

had been a patient at Saint Raphaels for 17

years! Records show it wasnt uncommon

for homeless residents, or those without

family, to stay for two to three years.

29

Perhaps the most cherished feature of

Saint Ritas, however, was the spacious

chapel with intricate stained glass win dows.

Everything important happened in the

chapel, remembered Dorothy Scott, a

member of the Saint Raphael School of

Nursing Class of 1948. It was the core of all

our spiritual training. The chaplain gave

classes in religion, the nuns played the organ.

On feast days, the student body would sing.

Some of my classmates got married in the

chapel, they loved it so much.

Looking back at this era, Saint Raphaels

in 1928 published a review of its first 20

years. In 1908, 256 patients were treated at

the hospital. By 1927, that number increased

18-fold to 4,668. These patients reported a

diversity of occupations, ranging from a

candy maker, corsetiere, corset cutter and

pugilist, to gate keepers, hatters, fire men,

physicians, stenographers and teachers.

Their ailments varied, but one report

noted a striking variety of surgical

pathology cases, including an unusual series

of rare tumors of the mouth. One case

apparently showed a secondary tumor of

the ankle, representing the only instance

on record in American liter a ture. Another

very remarkable opera tive specimen

was a resected portion of the esophagus due

to cancer.

The number of physicians more than

doubled in the first two decades, with a

total of 33 on the medical staff. There were

also now four medical school residents;

10 special department tech ni cians;

80 student nurses; and 50 assistants and

hired helpers.

Saint Ritas Chapel circa 1944.

The central portions of the windows were saved and are now displayed in thehospital. (left)

30

Overseeing these caregivers, other staff

and patients were 12 Sisters of Charity who

lived on-site at the hospital. The score of

years (past) since the founding of Saint

Raphaels has brought its share of trials and

adversities incident to such undertakings,

the 1928 report stated. But the tiny seed

sown in 1907 has flourished by Gods grace,

and its laborers look forward to the

progress that lies ahead, confident that

Divine Guidance will not fail them and that

the blessings they invoke on the friends and

bene factors of the institution will be given

to the hundredfold.

TIME OF TRANSITION

With the stock market crash of 1929, New

Haven and the rest of the nation sank into

the Great Depression. Although there was

an overall economic downturn across the

nation and the world, New Haven was not

hit as hard as many cities. Still, times were

hard, and its not surprising that Saint

Raphaels launched no headline-grabbing

construction during the 30s, erecting only a

laundry facility and small pediatric pavilion.

During this period, the Sisters of

Charity worked tirelessly to meet the

increasing needs of many people in

the community. In September 1933, a clinic

offering pre-natal and post-natal care to

deserving mothers moved to Saint

Raphaels from Saint Anthonys Infant

Home at Prince and Gold streets. Along

with clinic care, patients received six

weeks of home infant care instruc tions,

supported by the Catholic Charity League.

But it was a difficult decade as well,

because many of those so instrumental in the

hospitals founding died or retired. Sister

Immaculatas 22-yearadministration came to

an end with her resignation in 1932; she died

four years later. In a tribute, the hospital

administration recognized her unique place in

Saint Raphaels history:

Sister M. Immaculata came to

New Haven to take charge of the

Hospital of Saint Raphael Sister

strong and undismayed by virtue of

her obediencemet and overcame

almost insuperable ob stacles. Her

quiet forcefulness inspired her co-

workers with confi dence, and soon

their energy, and hers was felt in

every department. Her prayer -

fulness, gentleness and strength of

character created an atmosphere of

spirituality, affa bility, and loyalty.

THE WAY IT WAS

Its fairly easy to document, and show the

scope, of Saint Raphaels physical growth in

these early decades. Increases in buildings,

beds, funds, patients and staff can be seen in

black and white. What isnt so easy to

capture is the camaraderie, color and feel of

daily hospital life. But because these years

created the founda tion for what Saint

Raphaels is today, its important to try.

For help, we turn to the recollections of

surgeon Mario Conte, M.D., who came to

Saint Raphaels as an intern in 1935.

Everything was for the patients comfort,

said Conte, who studied medicine in Naples,

Italy. At the time, the hospital was divided

into private rooms, where patients were

attended by their own private physicians,

and wards, where patients were treated by

residents and interns who were supervised

School of Nursing class of 1912. The firstclass in 1911 only had one graduate.

by the attending physicians. The average cost of staying on the

public ward was $7 a week.

Everybody got wonderful attention from the attendings, said Conte

of the ward patients, as good as if they were private patients.

He and the other interns lived at Saint Raphaels during

their training and worked a grueling schedule. Like todays interns,

each was assigned to different areas of the hospital on a rotating

basis. Unlike todays interns, who by law cant work more than 80

hours a week, Conte and his colleagues sometimes worked around

the clockeven, when needed, going out on ambulance duty.

If you were in the surgery department, you got up early in the

morning, collected the patients blood and analyzed it. We did all the

lab work and had a couple of nights off a week. But when you

were off at 5 p.m., you had to be back on by 7 a.m. We were also on

call every night.

For this, each intern earned $10 a month plus room, board and

uniforms. When Conte became a resident, his salary was raised to $35 a

month. And after some complaining, we got $50, Conte chuckled.

Because there were no recovery rooms or intensive care units,

interns, residents and nurses had to closely care for surgery patients

32

Working closely with the Sisters, the medical staff guided Saint Raphaels growth by:

1910 Opening a fully equipped pharmacy

1911 Opening of a modern laboratory (beyond the one first established in the Barnes residence)

1919 Establishing a dedicated urology department.

1926 Opening St. Vincents Pediatric Pavilion

1928 Hiring two women for key positions: Helen M. Scoville, M.D., as a part-time pathologist, and Marguerite A. Eichstaedt, R.N., as the hospitals first full-time nurse anesthetist.

1932Hiring Robert Nesbit, M.D., as the first full-time pathologist. He further developed Saint Raphaels clinical laboratories and formed the Pathology Department.

1933 Opening a dental clinic under the direction of Drs. George Fahy, Donald Johnson, and William Flynn.

33

First three decades of Saint Raphael administrators

19071909: Sister Mary Irmina McDonoughone of the four

founding sisters

19091910: Sister Rose Vincent

19101932: Sister Immaculata

19321937: Sister Catherine Regina

19371939: Sister Elenita

In February 1918, the cost of care at Saint Raphaels was

$1.50 a night for a bed in a multi-person ward

$2 to $5 a night for a private room

$2 for an ambulance call within city limits

$3 to $10 for each X-ray plate

By 1928, the cost of care rose to $17.50 per week in a general ward; $19

per week in a semi-private room (including medical and surgical attendance,

medications, nursing and laundry); and $30-$60 per week in a private room

and monitor conditions. Conte recalled how

Saint Raphael nurses were trained to

demonstrate a type of discipline almost

militaristic by todays standards. In their crisp

white uniforms and caps, nurses were

expected to stop what they were doing and

stand at attention whenever a doctor came

into the roomand they did.

Doctors of the time were rarely sued,

though they still carried malpractice

insurance. A physicians and surgeons

liability policy found in the Saint Raphael

archive for Israel Kleiner, M.D., Frank

McGuire, M.D., and others cost $12.50 a year.

The policy covered up to $10,000 for one

patient, with a $25,000 maximum for multiple

claims in a one-year period.

As simple as the healthcare system was

in the 20s and 30s, many look back on it

with fondness. Everybody cared for every -

body, said former nurse Edna Ribikoff, who

was interviewed in the mid-1990s for the

hospitals 90th anniversary. And although

those in authority de manded respect, they

also showed great kind ness to employees

and patients. One such figure was the head

nurse in obste trics, whom Ribikoff and

many others remember as Ma Ryan.

Her real name was Margaret Connolly

Ryan, and she had emigrated from Ireland as

a young woman. When her husband died in

1923 and left her with a 14-year- old son to

support, she entered Saint Raphaels School

of Nursing, where she picked up the

nickname that would distinguish her in Saint

Raphaels history.

Her son Jimmy Ryan, who served as an

altar boy in the hospitals main chapel for

many years, explained how she got the

nickname: Historically, student nurses

were kids right out of high school. When a

student nurse has a 14-year-old son, theres

a bit of a difference there, and thats where

Ma Ryan came into play.

Ma Ryans career got off to a fast start

when, three days before she graduated as an

R.N. in 1927, an Italian diplomat was shot in

his office and became a patient of Dr. Verdis.

They wanted a mature, good nurse,

Ryan explained, and they allowed my

mother out of training early. Ma Ryan

proved herself eminently capable and soon

became maternity supervisor.

We had to tow the line, Ribikoff remembered. There was no

hanky panky with her. It had to be done and done the right way.

At the same time, she was friendly, fun to work with and devoted

to her patients. She used to see when the mashed potatoes came up

from the kitchen downstairs that they had extra butter and extra

cream. She really and truly took care of her patients. Remember,

they used to spend 14 days in the hospital after having a baby.

Like soldiers, nurses and other employees learned to take

a certain amount of sternness from their superiors in stride

and even to expect it. As Ribikoff put it, We were ruled and

ruled properly.

ON PEOPLE AND PERSONALITIES

Like Ma Ryan, there are countless people who made an everlasting

mark on Saint Raphaels. In some cases, entire familieslike the

Flynn familyplayed an important role.

The community was very generous in its support, a commitment that continues today. Among the donations recorded in 1928

2 dozen pairs of window curtains

6 dozen articles of clothing from the Needle Work Guild

of America

Jelly, preserves, vegetables, condiments, ice cream, eggs, andat

Thanksgiving and Christmas12 prime turkeys and 2 geese

30 volumes of fiction for the library from graduate nurses

Down mattress, hair mattress, feather pillows, and linens

Hand-painted china tea set and bon bon dishes

Paschal candle, embroidered chapel linens, sanctuary carpet and chimes

James H. Flynn, M.D., was one of the hospitals founding

physicians and patriarch of a New Haven medical dynasty that

served both Saint Raphaels and the community. His nephew,

Charles T. Flynn, M.D., served as a Saint Raphael attending ear, nose

and throat surgeon for more than 50 years. Always active in civic

affairs, he was a presidential elector for President Franklin D.

Roosevelt and Vice President John N. Garner in 1936. He was also a

licensed pharmacist.

During his years of practice, Charles Flynn saw many unusual

cases. One involved a 3-year old boy who had swallowed a whistle that

became lodged in his vocal chords. Every time the boy breathed out,

he whistled uncontrollably. Fortunately, the doctor was able to

retrieve the whistle with a long pair of forceps.

No photos exist of thehospitals first x-raymachine, installed in 1912. But heres how the technology looked in 1937.

Another case was that of Albina Gejea, whose experience of

inhaling a tack made local headlines. She was admitted to Saint

Raphaels, where Charles Flynn performed a 20-minute procedure

using a bronchoscope to dislodge the tack from the mass of tissue that

had formed around it.

Yet the Flynn saga doesnt end with Charles. His younger brother,

William Henry Flynn, became the dentist who started Saint Raphaels

first dental clinic in 1933. In addition, two of Charles Flynns children

became doctors and two became dentists, some of whom practiced

at Saint Raphaels.

There are notable patients, as well. Today, patient confidentiality

is paramount. But back in the early 20th century, injuries, surgery

and illness were routinely covered in local newspapers, including the

New Haven Register.

Back Broken, Dennis Boyle Will Recover was one such Register

headline in May 1911, after the man fell from a building on Crown

Street. Later that month, there was a follow-up story: Lives with

Broken Back, Case of Dennis Boyle Regarded as Wonderful. First in

History of St. Raphaels. His Many Friends Hope Ultimate Recovery.

The article claimed Boyle was living with a completely severed spinal

column and resting on an air bed.

In June 1911, Operation on Womans Skull Restores Mind was

the title of a story about Mrs. M.M. Bard of Cleveland, Ohio, who was

prone to severe nervous attacks and decided to have surgery at

Saint Raphaels while visiting her sister in New Haven. Morris D.

Slattery, M.D., removed a section of Mrs. Bards skull and brain.

Before the operation, Mrs. Bard had a perfect craze for piano

playing, feared water, feared being at the top of any elevation and

35

was subject to shocking nervous attacks, a New Haven newspaper

reported. The operation has effected a complete and marvelous

cure and Mrs. Bard is now a perfectly normal woman.

Around the same time, Frank Steele of Old Saybrook got caught

in a motorized washtub that tore off his clothes and mangled his left

arm. Thankfully, he was successfully treated by a Dr. Crowe (first

name unknown) at Saint Raphaels.

MOVING AHEAD

As these stories colorfully illustrate, life at the young institution was

seldom dull. It also, apparently, was never empty. By the end of the

1930s, overcrowding was again an issue. With insurance and pre-

payment plans making hospitalization more accessible to more

people, the demand for Saint Raphael services (as well as semi-

private and private rooms) was growing. Even with 220 beds, 40

bassinets plus 57 extra beds crowded in, many patients were being

turned away in 1938 for lack of room.

To get needed space, the Sisters negotiated the purchase

of the Arnold College property abutting the hospital. The

$110,000 dealfor land and buildings at what is today the corner of

Chapel Street and Sherman Avenuewould provide the space

needed to expand.

36

The buildings of Arnold College (right),acquired by SaintRaphaels in 1939. Thebuildings were razed tomake way for the newconstruction (below).

The morality of society depends upon the woman. She is the mother, the teacher and the nurse

38

Chapter 4SAINT RAPHAEL SCHOOL OF NURSING

hen the School of Nursing graduated 11 students in 1912,

the Right Rev. John Joseph Nilan, archbishop of Hartford, addressed

the graduates. Whether modern readers chuckle or wince at his

sexist humor, the heart of his message was that nursing is a God-

given and noble profession. And perhaps nowhere has that belief

been more closely held than at Saint Raphaels.

There are some things that a woman is unfit for. She cant

throw a stone at a chicken without working harm to

everyone but the chicken. Its possible she has a right to the

ballot, but its probable shell never get it. I wouldnt trust her

with a knife, but if a question of endurance or patience is

concerned, she is preeminently in her place. In doing

everything about the sick room, in soothing the fevered brow,

in bandaging wounds, in lifting the aching limb, excuse me,

doctors, she is your superior.

Nursing, as a profession (requires you to) recognize you are not

dealing with logs or machines, but with the noblest work of God, the

human body. In it is the immortal soul, and you must reverence

that body as the temple of the Holy Ghost. Be faithful to your

physicians and patients, but above all be loyal to the

commandments of God. The morality of society depends upon the

woman. She is the mother, the teacher and the nurse, and she must

not forego any of her womanly prerogatives Nilan said.

From the first nursing student who entered in 1908 to the last class

that graduated in 1977, the Saint Raphael School of Nursing

produced not just some of the most compassionate and dedicated

nurses, but some of the most skilled. The founding physicians and

Sisters of Charity demanded that early nurses meet the highest

standards of professional ability and decorum, and thats what the

School of Nursing produced for all of its 69 years.

HOW IT STARTED

With the Sisters of Charitys expertise as both educators and

caregivers, opening a school of nursing seemed natural. It also

assured a steady stream of superbly trained nurses to staff the new

hospital.

First called the Training School for Nurses, the school opened

with the arrival of its first student, Mary Agnes Smith, in 1908. Like

all future students, she lived on the hospital campus, which provided

total immersion in the field and almost round-the-clock training. She

was also the lone graduate in 1911.

More students quickly followed, and in 1912 the first formal

graduation ceremony was held. Eleven students received diplomas.

The following year, the name was changed to the Saint Raphael

School of Nursing, with more students applying than room allowed.

W

The class had grown to 40 members,

with the school being praised for the quality

of nurses being produced. Most credited the

mix of practical and class room training for

students success. And apparently, this good

work paid off in many ways.

Saint Raphaels received many com pli -

ments for the great care nurses provided. In

1924, however, it also received a much-

needed financial one. In thanks for the

loving care his wife received at Saint

Raphaels, Waterbury resident Truman S.

Lewis donated the funds to build and

furnish a dedicated School of Nursing

building. With this new building, the school

was able to more than triple enrollment.

For the next 50 years, as many as 150

students could beand wereenrolled at

any given time.

Another milestone in the develop ment of

the schools physical plant came with the

1939 purchase of the Arnold College

gymnasium on the corner of Sherman

Avenue and Chapel Street. The multi-story

brick building was subse quently moved to a

new location on George Street. The sight of

the massive structure inching along on

railroad ties is one that few of the spectators

would forget.

It was a tremendous undertaking and not

one single brick was out of place. It was a

masterpiece, said Mary Crocco, a member of

the School of Nursing class of 1942.

They told us it was the first brick

building that had ever been moved in

Connecticut, Sister Louise Anthony

recalled in an oral history taped years ago.

It was moved manually, not with horses.

Even the piano was still in there.

In its new location, the gym was re named

the Education Building. Al though it did house

classrooms, it also retained some of its

original function. The gym nasium on the

upper floor was retained and used by

nursing students for basketball, roller

skating, archery and other activities. But the

odds-on favorite was basketball.

When I was there, they had basketball

teams, and they had good games, said

former instructor Sister Jean Vincent, who

taught at Saint Raphaels from 1953 to 1960.

One thing I remember was a girl whose

name was Phyllis Fitzgerald. At the same

time we had a doctor who was great at

A $100,000 donation from retired Waterbury

manufacturer Truman S. Lewis created a modern,

four-story brick building for nursing students to

learn and live in. Named after Lewis late wife Selina

M. Lewis in honor of the loving care she received

here, the building still stands today on the George

Street side of the Saint Raphael campus, next to the

Father Michael J. McGivney Center for Cancer Care

parking lot.

When construction was completed in December

1925, newspapers described the building, including a

nursing school office; lecture and demonstration

rooms; 62 private and 27 double bedrooms; basement

laundry and ironing rooms; and an electric elevator

for easy access.

This memorial is no bleak, lifeless monument in

stone, but a spacious, handsome house of dwelling ...

(fit) for those caring for the sick and the injured, the

newspaper extolled.

Today the Selina Lewis building houses

the Saint Raphael Foundation and various

administrative offices.

1927 class ring

39

cheerleading, and hed be up in

the balcony and hed say, Go

FitzgeraldDeadeye Fitzgerald!

Sister Louise recalled that on

some nights, she would listen to

the sounds of roller skates and

laughter emanating from the

Education Building as she tried to

fall asleep.

We Sisters were still young

enough to wish that we were over

there, she said.A sing-a-long in theEducation Building.

The Sisters wereknown to join instudent basketballgames.

School of Nursingbasketball team.

41

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Judging from many former students recollections, the Saint Raphael

School of Nursing may have been more aptly named Saint Raphaels

Boot Camp for Nurses. Once students completed six months of

classroom training, they were expected to begin supervised, hands-

on training with hospital patients. Many of these young nurses were

no more than 18 years old.

Students followed this schedule for three full years with just two

weeks vacation each year. When not in class or on a nursing floor,

students were expected to study in their rooms.

Class of 1944 member Emily Frances Cavallaro Granata recalls

one of her first hands-on learning experiences at the hospital when

she encountered a young, scared woman who said it was time to

deliver her babyright now. I responded Dont do it now!

Granata wrote in a memoir about the time. Then, she said, doctors

gave her scissors and shoestring. Saint Raphaels had a way of

teaching you so you never forgot.

For all students, curfew was 10 p.m. But on special occasions,

they were given a late night when they could stay out until 11. They

were allowed to go home every other weekend from noon Saturday

to Sunday evening, plus had a half-day off each week.

Additional, specialized training was offered on a rotating basis at:

Connecticut State Hospital in Middletown, psychiatric care

Laurel Heights Sanatorium in Shelton, tuberculosis nursing

McCook Memorial Hospital in Hartford, communicable diseases

Most of our teachers were nuns, so we obeyed them out of

admiration, recalled Mary Sexton, a 1941 graduate. Girls

sometimes sneaked out to meet boys, but you had to take the

consequences if you were caught. They could send you home. We

always lived a little bit in fear, but it made us some of the greatest

nurses ever.

Sexton went on to become a Hospital of Saint Raphael head

nurse, supervisor and School of Nursing teacher. Nurses I

taught who then worked here at the hospital would tell me I was

strict. It was very rewardingseeing those girls progress and

get promoted.

In 1951, the school was among the first in the U.S. to be

accredited by the National League of Nursing.

While students were challenged by the rigors of a boot camp,

they also enjoyed the social bonding of a sorority house. Rita

HERE WAS A TYPICAL DAY

6 a.m. or earlier

Breakfast in the basement

coffee and a hard roll.

6:30 a.m.

Mass.

7 a.m.

Serve breakfast trays to patients;

give baths, treatments and

medications.

9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Classesanatomy and physiology,

medical nursing, pharmacology,

ethics and religion.

3 to 11 p.m. or 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Staff medical floors under guidance of registered nurse.

7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Tuesdays and Thursdays: Participate in athletic program.

Callahan Hutchinson remembers being indoctrinated into a strict

sisterhood of rules and regulations.

The hem of your uniform had to measure 18 inches from the floor,

Hutchinson said with a laugh. If your shoes were dirty or you didnt

have a hairnet, you got campusedgrounded, so to speak. But we had

such closeness, formed lifelong friendships and had a lot of fun.

Maybeth Creagan Edwards recalled bursting into tears when she

learned nursing students had to work on Christmas Day. I had no

idea, Edwards said. I thought we got holidays off, like any other

school or job.

Edwards must have decided to accept the holiday commit ment,

because she went on to work at Saint Raphaels for 42 years,

eventually become an evening nursing supervisor.

The nurses trained at Saint Raphaels were

industrious and respectful, and they bent over

backward to please, said Paul Goldstein, M.D.,

a pediatrician who served as Saint Raphaels

Ambulatory Services chairman from 1975 to

1995. They were meticulous in patient care,

and in pediatrics very loving of children.

Student nurses were allowed to wear

traditional white, pointed nursing caps

after a six-month pre-clinical probationary

period. The caps marked the students

ability to step away from the classroom

and further their educations with hands-on, bedside

training. This was a privilege and honornow we felt like

responsible, dedicated nurses, wrote Class of 1924 graduate Ruth

Anderson McNamara Durkin.

WHEN NURSES WERE PLENTIFUL!

Despite todays national nursing shortage, there were times

when there were more nurses than opportunities. While student

nurses worked in all hospital areas in the mid-1940s, there

were often no hospital jobs for them after graduation. Many went on

to become visiting nurses, including Gertrude (Luft) Russell whose

comment about being a New Haven visiting nurse in 1932 is included

in Saint Raphaels archives. It says a lot of about the compassion of

Saint Raphael nurses, and the Sisters who worked with them:

I went to a home on Congress Avenue. It was a high rise and

this woman lived on the third floor, and when I got in to her,

all crippled up and in bed, oh, it was awfulno heat. It was

the dead of winter. I got back and met with one of the Sisters

and told her about the woman. She had me give her the name

42

According to a recruitment brochure, the Saint

Raphael School of Nursing would help students:

Cultivate character based on religious principles

Teach the art of expert bedside nursing

Develop a sense of personal responsibility

Teach social graces

Learn health maintenance and disease prevention

Above all, it was a place to reinforce the values that Saint

Raphaels founders lived by: Discipline. Team Spirit.

Selflessness. Charity. The Sisters were intent on passing on

not just the mechanics of health care, but the spirit.

As the catalog states: the hospital and the School of Nursing

function under the Catholic ideal of nursing, namely that to

serve suffering humanity is to serve

Christ himself

and street number and she called right then and there and

had coal delivered to that house.

RESPECTED FOR SKILL AND DIVERSITY

Elaine Hardy and the late Doris Jackson were the schools first African-

American students. Both graduated in 1949, with Hardy recalling a

superb education and very few run-ins regarding her skin color, despite

racial tensions of the day. After graduation, she moved to New York City

to seek advanced training as a nurse anes thetist and earned a bachelors

degree from New York University.

My old-fashioned, three-year training at Saint Raphaels served

me in good stead, Hardy said. They saturated us with knowledge,

so that it was in you forever.

Class yearbooks give clues to the close, spirited relationships

among students. In 1950, the senior class song, entitled The

Smoker, referred to the basement room in the Selina Lewis building

where smoking was permitted. Long before hospitals like Saint

Raphaels became smoke-free, this hazy hideaway was a hub of the

schools social life. Sung to the tune of Ive Been Working on the

Railroad, the songs lyrics are:

Weve been sitting in the smoker

All the livelong day

Were the high and mighty Seniors

Just to pass the time away

How about a little bridge game?

What dya sayYou have to go to class?

Ah, sit down and have a Camel

Thats the way to pass.

Taking a break in theSelina Lewis basement.

At work in theclassroom. Class of1959.

In the evening, there were often sing-a-longs at the piano, and on

special occasions, the school held dances in the former Arnold Gym.

Sometimes, the students could even squeeze in a few hours for

courting, according to Sister Jean Vincent.

Many of the students would have men flocking at the door

to take them out, she said. The young woman would walk down the

steps into the lobby like a queen, and the young man would

be standing there and would say, Give me your coat. And he would

hold it, and she would slip her arm in. And he would run and open

the door.

GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Despite the dedication of students and alumniand Saint Raphaels

devotion to themthe School of Nursing closed in 1977. On April 3,

1974, the seemingly inevitable news was released: The Hospital of

Saint Raphael today announced its board of trustees has voted to

close the hospitals schools of nursing and medical technology

Two factors contributed to the decision. First was a national

trend toward replacing three-year, hospital-based diploma nursing

schools with four-year, college-based degree programs. It was a

change promoted in 1966 by the American Nurses Association,

which the Sisters felt compelled to follow, recalled former Saint

Raphael President Sister Anne Virginie. Saint Raphaels and many

U.S. diploma schools of nursing3,000 at their peak in 1926

closed, with only 311 remaining by 1980.

It was a very traumatic timevery traumatic, Sister Anne said.

The Sisters kept a detailed ledger about nursing students, with

handwritten notes next to each name. Most of these notes are

short and succinct. But they convey a sense of the times and hint

at dramatic stories long forgotten, offering

a personal side of the profession. For example, reasons for nursing

students leaving Saint Raphaels included:

Too delicate for the work.

Very easily discouraged.

Home sick.

Failed exams, became discouraged.

Weak heart, related aches.

Died Oct. 13, 1918 of Spanish influenza.

A good, willing subject, but of too nervous temperament for

nursing.

Sent by the government during war; resigned when hostilities

ceased.

Unable to do class work required.

Married secretly while in training.

(Students were required to be single.)

Sister Louise Anthonywith two nurses. Date unknown.

45

In the Selina Lewisbuilding parlor, 1942.

The second factor was increasing pressure from the federal

government for hospitals to reevaluate and cut back on costly

educational efforts, recalled Sister Louise Anthony. And there was no

doubt the school was costly. Even though students were charged

annual tuition, the school was not self-sustaining. Saint Raphaels

absorbed many thousands of dollars of expenses each year.

The School of Nursings incoming freshman class that graduated

in 1977 was its last. At the time of the announcement, 146 students

were enrolled. Sister Louise, herself an alumna, said the following in

a hospital news release: The Hospital of Saint Raphael School of

Nursing has enjoyed a long and proud tradition. I am personally

saddened that the school must close, but the long-range interests of

School of Nursingoverflow dormitoryon Orchard Street.

Class of 63 alumnae worked across the hall

in the operating room, Dolores Guarino and

Arlene DeLuca Granata.

What makes Saint Raphaels so special

that the five would stay on for so long?

Saint Raphaels was always like a

family, Wnek said. When I got married in

1966, Sister Columba, who was on Private 3

with me, gave me a beautiful hand-carved

statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary that I still

have to this day. It was that kind of warm,

caring place.

Mary Kennedy has worked at Saint

Raphaels since graduating in 1977, mostly

in the Emergency Department (ED) and

mostly nights.

I love working in the ED because you

learn so much, Kennedy said. You see

certain traumas at night that you wouldnt

see on the day shift. We once delivered a

baby in a car just after it pulled into the

driveway of the hospital. Thats a good night

in the ED, when a baby is born.

Kennedy said shes proud to be a Saint

Raphael School of Nursing graduate. The

hands-on training made her immediately

ready after graduation to go to work on a

floor: When the school closed, it was the

end of an era.

both the hospital and nursing education are

best served by this decision.

Today, the spirit of the school is kept

alive in the more than 400 active alumni,

said Alumni Association President Theresa

(Terry) Santore Swan. Many graduates live

in the area and continue to meet regularly.

Its a tradition the groups held since its

founding in 1914.

Joan Kulack Wnek, a member of the Class

of 1963, entered the nursing school when she

was 17 and in 2007 celebrated working at

Saint Raphaels for 44 years. Before retiring,

she worked in Short-Term Surgery with two

of her classmates, Kathy McKiernan Magel

and Karen Zeender McCarthy. Two other

46