Book about Dr. Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital Launched

Book about Dr. Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital Launched
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 3/8/2012

The book needed to be published in order to transmit, record and faithfully assess the history of this hospital and to memorialize it in print and photos.

First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández recently launched the book, entitled “Dr. Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital: Birthplace of Dominican Pediatrics,” …

First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández recently launched the book, entitled “Dr. Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital: Birthplace of Dominican Pediatrics,” a history of the hospital from its founding until today. The book outlines how the hospital instituted its first department chair and the first pediatric physician’s residency program in the ominican Republic as well as other interesting stories about the history of this important pediatric hospital.

The 200-page book will serve as a guide for students and medical professionals wherein they will learn about the founders and promoters of pediatrics in the DR. It also contains a chronology of the hospital’s directors from its founding until the present.

First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández said this book fills the need to transmit, record and faithfully assess the history of this hospital in print and photos as well as fills the goal of passing on to present and future generations the important process involved in building society and its institutions.

“Today, in launching ‘Dr. Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital: Birthplace of Dominican Pediatrics,’ we are memorializing 57 years of life and evolution of a leading pediatric institution and a pillar of health and well-being for Dominican children, particularly those from families of limited financial resources,” said the First Lady.

Cedeño de Fernández stressed that the hospital has been a premiere center for learning and the professional training of prestigious pediatricians. “It is a research and epidemiological clinic and has become a lighthouse of hope for many mothers and families who have found themselves overwhelmed with uncertainty, pain and anguish because one of their children has fallen ill or has suffered an accident.”

Current Hospital Director, Dr. Emilio Mena, who gave the words of welcome at the book launch, called the Dr. Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital the Alma Mater of Pediatrics. Likewise, Dr. Joaquín Mendoza, Doctor of Pediatric Medicine, presented the book, which he praised and referred to a real treasure.

This book contains 11 topics and pays homage to pediatrics and to Dominican pediatricians. It concisely brings together the history of this specialty and how it came about in the DR at this health center that was initially known as the Children’s Hospital of Santo Domingo. The book praises how this clinic was the birthplace for the precursors who laid the foundation for an essentially Dominican School of Pediatrics.

The book also looks at topics related to the Dominican Association of Pediatric Researchers, the creation of the Dominican Society of Pediatrics, the supporting international organizations and their distinguished visitors, services offered by the hospital, the direction of the hospital in the 21st Century and the participation of the Office of the First Lady in the Dr. Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital which has become one of the most modern children’s hospitals in Latin America, placing it in the vanguard of pediatric medicine in the 21st century.

The book tells the story of how, with the passage of time, the hospital suffered from extensive deterioration of its infrastructure and equipment which had become obsolete and how this motivated Margarita Cedeño de Fernández to undertake a restructuring process that involved building new areas and wings and equipping the hospital with cutting edge technology. The objective of the First Lady’s involvement to improve the hospital was to offer Dominican children from families with limited financial resources the opportunity to receive adequate healthcare in an appropriate atmosphere.

Margarita Cedeño gave copies of the book to Health Minister, Bautista Rojas; Hospital Director Dr. Emilio Mena; Rafael Shiffino, president of the Dominican Pediatric Society and to the president of the hospital’s volunteer organization, Maria Auffant.

Other also received copies of the new book, including Isabel Turull, Celso Marrancini and Raysa de Cruz, who represented business people who supported the modernization of the hospital; Dr. Persio Romero, who was representing the Dominican Medical College; Luís Cárdenas, president of the Health Reporters Club and to health reporters Altagracia Ortiz, Lisania Batista and Janet Beltré.