Trailblazing women who rewrote the healthcare industry

In 19th-century Boston, two trailblazing women rewrote the healthcare industry
Dr. Marie Zakrzewska founded the second hospital ever to have women doctors treat women patients, where Dr. Susan Dimock served as a resident physician at just 25 years old.
WHERE THERE WERE VERY FEW. BEHIND THE GRAND GATE AT FOREST HILLS CEMETERY ARE THE RESTING PLACES OF GREATS, SPANNING GENERATIONS TO MANY NOTABLES TO NAME. ON THIS DAY, WE FOCUS ON TWO WOMEN DOCTORS WHO HISTORIAN SUSAN NILSSON CALLS REVERE MISSIONARIES MARIA ZAJKOWSKI AND SUSAN DIMOCK WILSON CAME UPON DIMECH’S LIFE STORY DECADES AGO, WHEN SHE LEARNED OF HER UNTIMELY DEATH, SEARCHING FOR IDEAS FOR HER THEN REGULAR HISTORY COLUMN IN THE BOSTON GLOBE. WILSON FOUND AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE SHIPWRECK SCHILLER. SO IT WAS A TERRIBLE DISASTER. AND. NEWSPAPERS AROUND THE WORLD COVERED IT. OF THE 372 PEOPLE ABOARD, ONLY. 37 SURVIVED. AMONG THE VICTIMS WAS DIMOCK, THEN JUST 28. SO YOUNG BUT ALREADY SO ACCOMPLISHED, A SURGEON AND THE RESIDENT PHYSICIAN AT THE NEW ENGLAND HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN ROXBURY. THIS IS THE ORIGINAL HOSPITAL BUILDING FOUNDED BY DOCTOR ZAKRZEWSKA. WILSON SAYS THIS WAS ONLY THE SECOND HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY WHERE WOMEN DOCTORS TREATED WOMEN PATIENTS. ONE OF THE SPECIALTIES HERE WAS MATERNITY, AND A LOT OF WOMEN JUST DIDN’T WANT TO HAVE A MAN DOING A PHYSICAL ON THEM. IT WAS IT WAS VICTORIAN TIMES. IT WAS A BIG DEAL TO HAVE A WOMAN DOCTOR AND AN EVEN BIGGER DEAL TO HAVE A WOMAN SURGEON IN. THIS WAS THE SURGERY SUITE, A CORNER ROOM WITH WINDOWS ALL AROUND. THE REASON FOR THIS IS YOU NEEDED LIGHT. WHY DID YOU NEED LIGHT? BECAUSE THIS WAS 1872 AND THERE WAS NOT ELECTRICITY IN BOSTON. THEY DID HAVE GAS LAMPS IN A LOT OF HOMES TO LIGHT THE ROOMS, BUT THEY COULDN’T USE GAS LAMPS HERE BECAUSE DURING SURGERY THEY USED ETHER. ETHER AND GAS EXPLOSION HERE. DIMOCK WAS A MASTER TAKE HER TREATMENT OF A LITTLE GIRL WITH AN AWFUL TUMOR. SHE INCISED IT AND WENT IN, OF COURSE, WITH. ETHER AND FOUND 71 LITTLE LOBULES. IT WAS WRITTEN UP IN MEDICAL JOURNALS. AFTER WRITING A COLUMN ABOUT DIMOCK IN THE MID 90S, WILSON WOULD OFTEN. GIVE LECTURES ABOUT HER. AFTER A RECENT REQUEST, WILSON DECIDED A BOOK WAS IN ORDER, SO SHE WROTE ONE. I’M STILL, STILL A SHOCK THAT NOBODY ELSE EVER DID IT. IT’S AN AMAZING STORY. I THINK IT WOULD MAKE A GREAT MOVIE AS WELL. THAT MOVIE WOULD START IN WASHINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA, WHERE DIMOCK, A MARVEL, WAS BORN IN 1847. SHE LIVED IN A SOCIETY WHERE THERE WERE NO SCHOOLS FOR YOUNG GIRLS TO GO TO. UM, BUT SHE WANTED TO LEARN. SHE WAS VERY INTERESTED IN MEDICINE, SO SHE LINKED UP WITH A LOCAL DOCTOR AND SAID, CAN I HAVE ANY BOOKS? AND THE BOOKS WERE ALL WRITTEN IN LATIN. OKAY, SO SHE LEARNED LATIN IN ORDER TO READ MEDICAL BOOKS. WE’RE TALKING ABOUT A NINE, TEN, 11 YEAR OLD GIRL. WILSON TRAVELED THE WORLD FOLLOWING DIMOCK STORY AFTER THE CIVIL WAR FORCED A MOVE TO MASSACHUSETTS, WHERE DIMOCK WOULD MEET DOCTORS JESSICA. SHE ATTENDED MEDICAL SCHOOL IN ZURICH. IN ZURICH, THERE WERE A LOT OF RADICALS, AND THEY DECIDED TO LET SOME WOMEN INTO THE MED SCHOOL WITH THE MEN AND TO SHARE EQUALLY UPON. DIMOCK RETURNED TO BOSTON AT AGE 25. SHE WAS NAMED RESIDENT PHYSICIAN AT NEW ENGLAND HOSPITAL. SHE HAD TO LIVE HERE. SHE WORKED 24 OVER SEVEN. SHE WAS PAID $300 A YEAR. I KNOW AS A FACT. AT THE SAME TIME, THE HEAD CHEF AT THE PARKER HOUSE WAS PAID $5,000 A YEAR. JUST FOR PERSPECTIVE, HOSPITALS AT THAT TIME WERE MORE LIKE CHARITIES. IMAGINE THE SENSE OF OPPRESSION AND THINGS THAT WERE GOING ON, AND THESE AMAZING WOMEN AT THAT TIME WHO SAID, YOU KNOW, WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS EVERY DAY WHEN I WALK BY THOSE PICTURES, I THINK ABOUT THE THINGS WE FACE AND HAVE THAT SAME SENSE, YOU KNOW WHAT WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. DOCTOR CHARLES ANDERSON IS THE PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE DIMOCK CENTER FOR. I’M THE FIRST MALE LEADER OF THIS AMAZING, AMAZING, 160 YEAR OLD INSTITUTION. YOU SEE, IN 1969, THE NEW ENGLAND HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN CLOSED THE NEW ENGLAND HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN WAS KIND OF A VICTIM OF ITS OWN SUCCESS. WOMEN WERE BEING ACCEPTED INTO MALE MEDICAL SCHOOLS. THERE WERE MORE AND MORE REALLY EXPENSIVE, WELL FINANCED BOSTON HOSPITALS. IT REOPENED AS THE COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER. IT IS TODAY NAMED FOR THE STREET IT WAS ON. IT’S NOT THAT NOBODY KNEW WHO SUSAN DIMOCK WAS, BUT IT WAS A NO BRAINER. IT’S DIMOCK STREET, WE’LL CALL IT THE DIMOCK CENTER. SO ONE OF THE THINGS I’M TRYING TO DO IS TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE KNOWS WHY DIMOCK STREET WAS CALLED DIMOCK STREET. BECAUSE SUSAN DIMOCK IS THE LEGACY HERE, A LEGACY LIVING ON IN THE WOMEN IN MEDICINE. SHE INSPIRED. AND THE WORK STILL BEING DONE HERE. WE’RE INVOLVED WITH SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER. WE’RE INVOLVED WITH FAMILY SHELTER. WE’RE INVOLVED WITH HEAD START. WE’RE ALSO THE LARGEST EMPLOYER IN ROXBURY. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WAS ESTABLISHED 260 YEARS AGO. I CAN IMAGINE THAT THIS WAS THAT PLACE THAT PEOPLE CAME AND THEY UNDERSTOOD THAT A THEY WERE GOING TO BE SEEN, THEY WERE GOING TO BE HEARD. BUT THEY WERE ALSO GOING TO BE PART OF THE PROCESS. JUST INCREDIBLE. CAN YOU IMAGINE LEARNING LATIN SO THAT YOU COULD THEN LEARN IN MEDICINE AT TEN YEARS OLD? IT’S AMAZING. AND SUSAN’S BOOK, WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST, WAS A NOD TO THE HOSPITAL WHERE DIMOCK WORKED, BUT IT ALSO ACKNOWLEDGES HER UNTIMELY DEATH AND THE IDEA OF HELPING WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST IN A DISASTER. WILSON SAYS THAT DID NOT HAPPEN WHEN THE CYLINDER SANK, SHE SAYS IN THAT CASE, UNFORTUNATELY, IT WAS MORE LIKE EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF. WE HAVE EVOLVED A BIT. I HOPE SINCE THEN STILL AHEAD, HEAL
In 19th-century Boston, two trailblazing women rewrote the healthcare industry
Dr. Marie Zakrzewska founded the second hospital ever to have women doctors treat women patients, where Dr. Susan Dimock served as a resident physician at just 25 years old.
The Dimock Center, once a hospital, now a community health center in Roxbury, was named for the street it is on, Dimock Street. Who was Susan Dimock? Historian, photographer, and author, Susan Wilson explores the extraordinary life of the doctor and surgeon who was a pioneer for women in medicine in her book, Women and Children First: The Trailblazing Life of Susan Dimock, M. D. ” lived in a society where there were no schools for young girls to go to, but she wanted to learn, and she was very interested in medicine. So, she linked up with a local doctor and kind of said, ‘can I have any books?’ and the books were all written in Latin. So, she learned Latin in order to read medical books.” Wilson said.At 25-years-old, Dimock was named resident physician at New England Hospital for Women and Children. The hospital closed in 1969, and later reopened as the community health center it is today. The center, along with the street is resides on, is named after Dimock and her trailblazing work as a woman in healthcare.
The Dimock Center, once a hospital, now a community health center in Roxbury, was named for the street it is on, Dimock Street.
Who was Susan Dimock? Historian, photographer, and author, Susan Wilson explores the extraordinary life of the doctor and surgeon who was a pioneer for women in medicine in her book, Women and Children First: The Trailblazing Life of Susan Dimock, M. D.
“[Dimock] lived in a society where there were no schools for young girls to go to, but she wanted to learn, and she was very interested in medicine. So, she linked up with a local doctor and kind of said, ‘can I have any books?’ and the books were all written in Latin. So, she learned Latin in order to read medical books.” Wilson said.
At 25-years-old, Dimock was named resident physician at New England Hospital for Women and Children. The hospital closed in 1969, and later reopened as the community health center it is today. The center, along with the street is resides on, is named after Dimock and her trailblazing work as a woman in healthcare.
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