Bellevue Hospital New York, July 1934—December 1936

BELLEVUE HOSPITAL NEW YORKJULY 1934-DECEMBER 1936 DeWITT STETTEN, JR* On the east side of First Avenue, between Twenty-sixth and Thirtyfirst Streets in Manhattan, stood the ancient brick pile that was Bellevue Hospital. It was surrounded by a tall iron fence and fronted directly on the East River, which is Manhattan's most interesting river frontage. The large boat wharf of the New York Yacht Club was at the foot of Twentysixth Street, whereas a few blocks away on another wharf stood the Municipal Lodging House, an overnight accommodation for the abundant destitute of New York City and a source of many of our patients. Bellevue was the largest and most distinguished of the hospitals of the City of New York. It had 2,400 beds, a vast outpatient department, a relatively new and handsome psychiatric pavilion that had been constructed by our old family friend, Dr. Menas Gregory, with the support of his sponsor, Mayor jimmy Walker, New York's famous playboy mayor. It also housed the city morgue and the office of the medical examiner, which was responsible for autopsies on all persons who died under suspicious circumstances in the city. It had a most active emergency room, which was fed by a busy ambulance service covering a band across Manhattan between Forty-second and Houston Streets, river to river. In addition to the usual services of medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics, and gynecology, it housed an active alcoholic pavilion, a fascinating prison ward, and a gloomy erysipelas ward. It was, in a sense, a hospital of last resort. Other hospitals in the city had the privilege of rejecting new admissions when all of their beds were filled. Bellevue did not have this privilege. No one could be denied admission, and, consequendy , there were often rows ofcots set up between the rows ofbeds on its wards. It was, in the opinion of its interns and residents, the most exciting hospital in the world. This is chapter 5 of the author's memoirs, How My LightIs Spent. Chapter 1, "Rudi," was published in PBM 25:354-368, 1982. *Senior Scientific Advisor, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20205. Copyright is not claimed for this article. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 28, 4 ¦ Summer 1985 \ 543 Because of ancient historic ties (the origins of New York University's School of Medicine were, in fact, rooted in Bellevue Medical School) and because NYU Medical School actually sat across the street from Bellevue Hospital, the Third, or NYU, Division was the most active teaching service. It was therefore deemed to be the preferred service for internship . OnJuIy 1, 1934, 1 appeared at Bellevue Hospital for my initiation. We were greeted by the Dean and Chairman of Medicine, Dr. John Wyckoff, who turned us over to his chief medical resident, Dr. Joseph Bunim. Joe instructed us briefly in our duties and then referred us to the laundry room where we were issued an array of short white coats, white shirts with Russian-style collars, and white trousers. The white socks and shoes, which completed my uniform for the next 2V2 years, we were supposed to supply ourselves. We were each assigned a very small private bedroom, were introduced to the large dining hall, and were told that our stipend from that time forward would be $7.50 each month. As interns, we were on duty every day and every other night with the exception of alternate weekends. The internship lasted 1 year and was evenly split between service on the medical wards and service on the surgical wards. My time was mostly spent in the A and B building, which fronted on the East River. The fifth and sixth floors ofthis building were devoted to the Third Medical Division. My medical ward, as I recall it, was 5A. This and every other ward in the building had 26 iron beds, 13 on each side ofthe long room. There was no other furniture in the room except for the nurse's desk, an enameled iron affair lighted by a desk lamp with a green glass shade. Here sat a nurse all day and all night, updating the charts of the several patients, preparing medications...