Fe del Mundo suffered significant losses early in life, and
they sculpted her future. Three of her
eight siblings died in infancy. And when
her older sister---who’d dreamed of one day being a doctor to the poor---died
at age 11 of appendicitis, young Fe decided she would be a pediatrician.
A brilliant student, she earned her medical degree from the
University of the Philippines in 1933.
And because of her giftedness the President of the Philippines offered
her a scholarship to any medical school in the United States, to further her
training. Fe chose Harvard Medical
School, and was accepted there in 1936.
When she arrived, she was surprised to be escorted to her room in the
male dormitory.
It was then that she learned Harvard did not accept women to
its medical school. And Harvard learned
that Fe was a woman.
However, because of her stellar record the head of the
Pediatrics department decided to make an exception for del Mundo. It would take nine additional years for the
school to change its admission policies and begin accepting women.
After her studies at Harvard and at Boston College, where
she earned a Masters in Bacteriology, Fe decided to return to the Philippines
in 1941, just months before the Japanese invasion. When the war began, she took a job with the
Red Cross and worked with the children interned at the University of Santo
Tomas. In 1943 when the Japanese closed
the camp, del Mundo headed up the Children’s Hospital in Manila and worked
there until 1948
Growing tired of the governmental bureaucracy that seemed to
limit the effectiveness of medical care, Fe sold her home and most of her
belongings, obtained a sizeable loan, and founded her own 100 bed pediatric
hospital that opened its doors in 1957.
One year later she ceded personal ownership of the hospital to a Board
of Trustees. Not having a home of her
own now, del Mundo lived on the second floor of her hospital.
Doing pioneering work in the area of infectious diseases,
and remaining active in the field of public health (she once created an
incubator out of bamboo for rural clinics without electricity to use), del
Mundo practiced medicine for eight decades---passing away just short of her 100th
birthday.
Shaped by early losses, this remarkable doctor, innovator,
and humanitarian turned tragedy into triumph, and in the process made the world
a healthier place---in mind, body, and spirit.
Fe del Mundo is hero
you should know. And I’m Dr. Ross
Porter.
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