Compilation of historical data on healthcare at Vall d’Hebron: first patient with stroke attended in 1607

O. de Fàbregues-Boixar
Neurosciences and History 2019;7(1):1-14

Type of article: ORIGINAL

AUTHOR

O. de Fàbregues-Boixar
Neurologist. Head of the Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders unit, Department of Neurology, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain.
Doctor of neuroscience.
Associate director of the Museo Archivo Histórico of the Spanish Society of Neurology.

ABSTRACT

Introduction. This article describes various historical aspects of healthcare at Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron.

Methods. Documentation was collected and reviewed from the historical archive of the city of Barcelona, the archives of the Diocese of Barcelona, and the historical archive of the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya, the manuscripts section of the Biblioteca de Catalunya, and the literature on the Hieronymite monastery of Saint Jerome in Vall d’Hebron and Hospital Vall d’Hebron. Data of healthcare and neurological interest were collected.

Results. Today’s Hospital Vall d’Hebron stands on the site of a farm that belonged to the royal monastery of Saint Jerome in Vall d’Hebron. The monastery, of which only traces remain today, had an infirmary, pharmacy, hostelry, and a hospital for the poor, and provided healthcare to Hieronymite monks, guests, pilgrims, and poor people from the time of its foundation (1393) to its secularisation (1835). The monastery was used as a lazaretto during the yellow fever and cholera epidemics in Barcelona, in 1821 and 1834, respectively. The 1903 urban plan for greater Barcelona allocated the area for the “placement of a hospital.” The fact that the land was owned by the state and the site’s salutary characteristics made it ideal for the construction of a large healthcare complex outside of the city centre: the Residencia Sanitaria Francisco Franco (1955). With the transition to democracy, the name Hospital Vall d’Hebron was restored. The first record of neurological care was the admission and treatment of a patient with stroke at the monastery’ s infirmary in 1607.

Discussion. Vall d’Hebron has offered healthcare for centuries: under the auspices of the church in the Middle Ages, as a lazaretto or quarantine hospital in the 19th century, and as the Hospital Vall d’Hebron today.

KEYWORDS

Healthcare, monastery of Saint Jerome in Vall d'Hebron, History of Hospital Vall d’Hebron

Neurosciences and History 2019;7(1):1-14