[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 3487]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  RECOGNIZING 150 YEARS OF SERVICE BY ST. VINCENT MERCY MEDICAL CENTER

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                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 3, 2005

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to recognize an historic 
anniversary in my district in Northern Ohio. St. Vincent Mercy Medical 
Center celebrates 150 years of service. On Wednesday, February 23, 
2005, the hospital will mark this sesquicentennial with a dedication 
and blessing of its Historic Donor Wall and Marguerite d'Youville 
Sanctuary.
  In 1737 Marguerite d'Youville and three friends dedicated their lives 
to serving the poor. They established a Hospital General, a hostel for 
the destitute. Because the hospital only admitted men at first, 
Marguerite took poor women into her home. In 1747, Marguerite and her 
companions took over the administration of the Hospital General, 
restored the buildings and provided a combination veteran's hospital, 
nursing home, orphanage, mental asylum, VD clinic, reformatory for 
prostitutes, and overflow ward in case of epidemics. The religious 
order Marguerite thus established was the Grey Nuns. Their successors 
continue her work.
  In 1855 four courageous and idealistic Grey Nuns took their lead from 
their foundress and traveled from Montreal with a mission to care for 
the sick and needy in Toledo, Ohio. St. Vincent's hospital was 
summarily established. The nuns' mission was soon broadened to include 
the education of health care professionals, patients and families. One 
hundred and fifty years later, St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center still 
holds fast to the ideals of Sr. Marguerite d'Youville in its unwavering 
mission to provide dignified and quality medical care to those in need.
  Today, St. Vincent's is a member of the Mercy Health Partners system, 
a faith-based consortium of six hospitals in Northwest Ohio and 
Southeast Michigan. St. Vincent's is a Level I certified trauma center, 
Life Flight air ambulance base, home of the Mercy Children's Hospital 
and state of the art acute care hospital. With 3,500 employees 
including almost 1,000 physicians on staff, it is one of our region's 
primary employers. Nearly 500 volunteers augment the staff.
  St. Vincent's has not only taken its hospital mission to heart, but 
also its role as a community leader. The hospital has transformed the 
near-downtown corridor on which it is located and maintains an 
influential and benevolent partnership with the neighborhood in which 
it is situated.
  St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center celebrates 150 years caring for the 
poor and sick by living Christ's teaching that ``Whatever you do to the 
least among you, that you do unto Me,'' as the recent photo of Sister 
Lucius in the hospital atrium, and the scholarship foundation in her 
name, attest. Onward!

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