Residents of the '00 block of Pine Street awoke last Saturday morning to an unusual sight -- their neighbor, Pennsylvania Hospital, was throwing a birthday party.
In celebration of its 250th anniversary, the nation's first hospital -- which is owned by the University of Pennsylvania Health System -- lined the street with booths stocked with health care information and staffed by doctors.
Music, free food and tours of the historic facilities were also part of the hospital's effort to celebrate with the surrounding community.
"I've lived here for 10 years, and this is the first time that I remember the hospital ever doing anything like this," area resident Evan Ortiz said. "I was like, Wow!' I've never ever seen the [hospital] doors open before."
Community members had a chance to check up on everything from vision screening to neurological conditions to spinal exams -- and even heart surgery. But not all booths appealed to the crowd.
"A lot of people don't want to deal with the word cancer, so they walk by," said John Glassburn, head of radiation oncology, as he manned his department's stand along 'th Street. "We're not the most popular booth."
Kathleen Michalski, a nurse at the hospital, volunteered to spend her day checking people's blood for anemia. By pricking a finger for a sample of blood and then placing the blood in an analyzer, she was able to give her "patients" a diagnosis within a few seconds.
"It's a good thing because there's a lot of people who don't even know what their hemoglobin [level] is," she said. "It's a service to the community. I really enjoy it."
Another popular booth was the "healthy eating" table staffed by the hospital's dietitians.
"People are asking us a lot about weight loss and vitamin supplements," dietitian Toni Ann Capozzolo said. "They want to know what's true and what's not true."
Inside the historic building -- the oldest section of which was completed in 1756 -- visitors took seats in the oldest existing surgical amphitheater, where townspeople once paid to watch the latest surgical techniques being performed.
There, an actor impersonating Phillip Syng Physick -- the "father of American surgery" -- explained how pain was relieved in the days before anesthesia. This meant either getting the patients "blind drunk" using opium or by knocking them unconsciousness -- and hopefully not killing them -- with a sharp blow to the back of the head.
"I wonder what the founding physicians would think if they came through now and saw what goes on," said Eric Mallow of the neonatology department. "It's a very, very different world."
History could also be found in the wood-paneled opulence of the hospital's library, which contains books from 14'3 to 1930, as well as a few medical specimens.
Lectures on health care issues such as breast cancer and bloodless medicine balanced the hospital's history with current strengths. The hospital's auxiliary -- also the nation's first -- sold flowers and crafts to raise funds for patient care.
"We had hoped for a few hundred, we have a few thousand," said Tricia Dych, the hospital's director of public affairs, on the event's turnout. "We're absolutely thrilled."
Robert Campbell, co-chairman of the celebration committee, added that he was very pleased with the day's outcome.
"There aren't many institutions that can say that they're 250 years old," he said.
