Bellevue

Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital

By: David Oshinsky

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian comes a riveting history of New York's iconic public hospital that charts the turbulent rise of American medicine.

Bellevue Hospital, on New York City's East Side, occupies a colorful and horrifying place in the public imagination: a den of mangled crime victims, vicious psychopaths, assorted derelicts, lunatics, and exotic-disease sufferers. In its two and a half centuries of service, there was hardly an epidemic or social catastrophe—or groundbreaking scientific advance—that did not touch Bellevue.
David Oshinsky, whose last book, Polio: An American Story, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and in so doing also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution. From its origins in 1738 as an almshouse and pesthouse, Bellevue today is a revered public hospital bringing first-class care to anyone in need. With its diverse, ailing, and unprotesting patient population, the hospital was a natural laboratory for the nation's first clinical research. It treated tens of thousands of Civil War soldiers, launched the first civilian ambulance corps and the first nursing school for women, pioneered medical photography and psychiatric treatment, and spurred New York City to establish the country's first official Board of Health.
As medical technology advanced, "voluntary" hospitals began to seek out patients willing to pay for their care. For charity cases, it was left to Bellevue to fill the void. The latter decades of the twentieth century brought rampant crime, drug addiction, and homelessness to the nation's struggling cities—problems that called a public hospital's very survival into question. It took the AIDS crisis to cement Bellevue's enduring place as New York's ultimate safety net, the iconic hospital of last resort. Lively, page-turning, fascinating, Bellevue is essential American history.

Critic reviews

“Any exciting book about the history of Bellevue—which this one surely is—is destined to be as much about the history of disease, medicine and New York City as about the hospital itself. Mr. Oshinsky’s chapters about the early days of medicine are especially, distractingly interesting—so much so that they’ll inspire you to read them aloud to anyone who’ll listen . . . Mr. Oshinsky, who won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for history for Polio: An American Story, has a lovely flair for detail.”
—Jennifer Senior, The New York Times

“Brilliant and deliciously readable . . . The story of Bellevue, Oshinsky convincingly demonstrates, is the story of modern medicine, of New York City, and of America itself.”
—Boston Globe

“Deeply engrossing . . . Oshinsky has wrestled an institutional history of significant complexity into a compelling tale . . . [He] is a master of finding and relating memorable anecdotes to embody the history. The result is a serious story studded with juicy and occasionally blood-curdling bits from the past.”
—Chicago Tribune

“No other hospital is as embedded in our culture as Bellevue. David Oshinsky’s biography of this grand dame of America’s public hospitals is a page-turner . . . Oshinsky has captured the spirit, the resilience that is Bellevue, a quality that rubs off on the legions who have trained there. A wonderful read!”
—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

“Compelling . . . In this rich history, we bear witness to a remarkable transformation as Bellevue evolves from bare-bones almshouse appendage in the 1700s to world-class academic medical center today . . . Oshinsky simply has a wealth of great material, and it’s a joy to traverse it with him.”
—USA Today

“You’ll walk away in awe of this tenacious institution—and marvel at the way Oshinsky also fits a comprehensive but succinct history of modern medicine itself into the same book.”
—Entertainment Weekly

tale of two cities

"...we the willing...lead by the unknowing...
...are doing the impossible...for the ungrateful...
...by the time we get done here...we will be qualified...
...to do everything with nothing..."
( bellevue-NYU house staff bathroom wall - 1978 )

? are you intrigued by the inner workings of healthcare
? does the medical history of new york city fascinate you
? are the needs and problems of the poor important to you

if so, david oshinsky has written a throughly terrific book for you
it's the history of indigent medical care in a city constantly re-inventing itself
bellevue has been bravely performing that daunting task for 300 years

trauma, infectious disease, mental illness and drug rehab. predominate
bellevue develops a reputation as a place to train and "...see everything..."
jewish medical students, pushed out by quotas elsewhere, are welcome there

new yorkers are justifiably proud of of bellevue's history and accomplishments
but, as you'd expect, there is a sad undercurrent to all this self congratulation
NYC indifference and parsimony make heroic medical devotion a daily necessity

in the mid 1970's, i finished college ( pre-med ) 90 minutes north of NYC
many of my classmates interviewed and then trained at bellevue-NYU
NYC's impending bankruptcy had left the hospital an insolvent chaotic mess

then a 33 yo pregnant bellevue physician was raped and beaten to death in her office
a manhattan jury later voted 10-2 to absolved bellevue of negligence in her murder
for many of my longtime NYC physician friends, that was the last straw

bill deblasio ran for NYC mayor, in 2013, claiming that there were "...two cities..."
finance, art, entertainment, restaurants and wall street were one city
indigent immigrants, mentally ill drug addicts and the working poor were another

oshinsky tells the brave story "...of the willing..." who seek to care for that 2nd city
NYC is NOT America's leading medical city - Boston, Baltimore, SF etc. out pace it
bellevue's devotion and sacrifice are necessary due to NYC apathy and underfunding

History, Society, Medicine

This is more than the story of Bellevue or of medicine. It uses Bellevue as a compelling "character" all its own, with a deep influence over medicine and societal change over the course of over 200 years.
It's well-researched, but it is not a dry read or performance. In fact, I found myself sneaking time away to read a chapter or two at a time. The hospital - and medicine itself - opened its doors to eccentric patients and physicians, cutting-edge and barbaric treatments, expensive construction and bureaucratic neglect.
If you're at all interested in New York City, history, medicine, or any combination, pick up this book!

Bellevue and Medical History

This book focuses on the history of Bellevue Hospital, but really covers a lot about the history of medicine, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is very interesting. However, I found it to be very long and bogged down a bit in some places with too much detail. Also, it bounces around some, making the chronology a bit hard to follow, but maybe that couldn't be helped.

Medical history and a history of NYC

This shatters a lot of myths that I had regarding Bellevue, most from Hollywood and Nellie Bly's reporting. In a nutshell, it's a great public hospital with a long history. Some things to be proud of, some to be ashamed of--but always open to the poor of NYC. Book works as a history of medicine, or at least of medical puzzles and breakthroughs. Antibiotics, antiseptics, Lister, Prohibition, AIDS, Winter Storm Sandy.

A remarkable accomplishment. This is what scholarship should look like

Fabulous

Fabulous in every way.
Was more like a page turner for me.
Why not a documentary??
A movie??
Please!