World-first procedures & pioneering treatments | Learn more about the history of the LGH
In February 2023 the LGH Historical Committee’s latest publication The History of Surgery: Launceston General Hospital 1863-2022 was launched.
February
Did you know the first general anaesthetic for surgery in Australia was administered in Launceston in 1847?
Or that the Launceston General Hospital was also one of the first to install X-Ray equipment in 1896, not long after its use in medicine first began in Europe.
Perhaps you knew the LGH was one of the first hospitals to have a ward dedicated in intensive care in Australia. It was here that the first ever successful internal heart massage was performed by Sir John Ramsay in 1906. This same surgeon performed probably the first ever pancreas transplant to attempt to cure diabetes in 1911.
Both were world firsts.
Over the past few years there have been a multitude of books published by the LGH Historical Committee about several aspects of the history of the LGH.
In February the group's latest publication The History of Surgery: Launceston General Hospital 1863-2022 was launched. The book was dedicated to the late Mrs Barbara Valentine OAM a committee stalwart for more than 25 years.
The history of surgery, its pioneering surgeons and anaesthetists had never been recorded in the one volume previously covering its development from 1863-2021. Although, several personalities such as Dr Francis Drake and Sir John Ramsay, the early pioneers, have been written about in books published by the committee in the last 20 years.
In putting this book together several authors wrote independently about the development of surgery and its personalities from early days on Mulgrave Square in 1863 to the present.
The next book will be published in April this year Shadows of the Past and Future: Infectious Disease and the LGH 1863-2023 and covers the many infectious diseases, epidemics and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic that the LGH managed.
All of the books are available through the Clifford Craig Foundation located on level 5 of hospital. They can also be bought online.
Please support the committee which is compiling a comprehensive medical history of the Launceston General Hospital.