Christian Medical College (CMC)

Christian Medical College Vellore was started as a one-bedded clinic-cum-dispensary in 1900 by Dr Ida Sophia Scudder, the daughter of second-generation medical missionaries. Today, this healthcare organisation of international repute includes a netw ganisation of international repute includes a network of primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary care hospitals, with around 3844 beds spread across six campuses in and around Vellore, and in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. CMC aims to bring high quality health care to those who need it the most – wherever they live. The central strategy in this vision is to develop, through education and training, compassionate, professionally excellent, ethically sound, servant-leaders in health care. The Christian Medical College Vellore (CMC) is ranked amongst the topmost medical colleges in India and offers an extensive range of undergraduate, postgraduate and higher speciality courses in medicine, nursing, allied health sciences and related disciplines. Central to CMC's commitment to education is a "hands-on" approach. Watch how this is put into practice for student nurses and student doctors both in the hospital and out in the community. Christian Medical College, Vellore, widely known as CMC, Vellore,[6] is a private, Christian minority community-run medical college and hospital in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.[7][8] This institute includes a network of primary, secondary and tertiary care hospitals.[9] The institute, constituent college is affiliated with the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University.[10] Founded in 1900 by an American missionary, Dr Ida S. Scudder, CMC Vellore has brought many significant achievements to India, including starting the first College of Nursing in 1946, performing the first reconstructive surgery for leprosy in the world (1948), performing the first successful open heart surgery in India (1961), performing the first kidney transplant in India (1971), performing first bone marrow transplantation (1986) in India and performing the first successful ABO incompatible kidney transplant in India (2009). The hospital was founded by Dr. Ida Sophia Scudder in 1900. Ida Scudder was the daughter of second-generation medical missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Church in the United States of America (US) who served in India. She was born in 1870 in Tindivanam, which is approximately 60 miles from Madras (known as Chennai today). As a young girl she witnessed famine, poverty and death, and vowed that she would never follow in her parents' footsteps and become a missionary. The Scudder family returned to the US on furlough in 1878 and Ida began her education. Her parents returned to India, but Ida Scudder stayed in the US attending the Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies (now Northfield Mount Herman). In 1891, she was called back to India to care for her ailing mother.[1] It was at this time that Ida became acutely aware of the lack of medical services available to women and children in India, primarily due to cultural and religious norms that did not allow male practitioners to treat females. This awareness became the driving force of her life one evening in her parents' bungalow, when a young Indian man came to the door requesting Ida's help for his wife who was struggling in childbirth. He rejected Ida's father, Dr John Scudder's care and left. Two more men came that very night with similar requests, seeking medical help for their wives in labor, but again turning down John Scudder's care. The three women and their babies died that night. The incident shook 24-year-old Ida Scudder to the core.[1][12][13] After prayer and deep thought Ida Scudder changed the course of her life, deciding to become a doctor in the US so that she could return to India to treat Indian female patients, and train Indian women to become doctors and nurses to serve their own. She returned to the US and in 1895, enrolled in the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. She completed her studies in New York where she was in the first class of doctors at Cornell Medical College[12] that included women (1899). Within three months she set sail for India with a "fiery passion to change things."[1] ...view more