Lucille Teasdale-Corti
Lucille Teasdale-Corti | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 30, 1929 |
| Died | August 1, 1996 (aged 67) |
| Known for | Surgeon and international aid worker |
Lucille Teasdale-Corti, CM, GOQ (January 30, 1929 – August 1, 1996) was a Canadian physician, surgeon and international aid worker, who worked in Uganda and contributed to the development of medical services in the country.
First steps
Born in Montreal, Quebec on 30 January 1929, she was the fifth of seven children. Her father René ran a grocery in Guybourg[1]
She was educated by [nun]s whose methods she thought to be very strict.[citation needed] A visit to the college by some nuns who had worked as missionaries in China acted as a catalyst for her, then aged 13, to consider becoming a doctor.[2]
She attended medical school at the Université de Montréal, graduating in 1955 and going on to work at the Hôspital Sainte Justine pour les Enfantes.[clarification needed] At the end of six years of training, she took her surgeon's examinations, a condition of doing which was that she must agree to work for a period of time in a hospital abroad.
Lucille tried to apply in the USA but her gender inhibited gaining a post.[3] This remained in her mind as she had always fought for justice[clarification needed]; in fact, she had thought that being a doctor would enable her to overcome the most evident of injustices, illness.[4]
There in Montrèal she met a young italian doctor, Piero Corti who was in Canada to get his third specialization in pediatrics, after that in radiology and in neuropsychiatry. Piero showed her an interest, but Lucille was concentrated on her job, working hard even 16 hours per day so that sometimes she fainted in the theater [5].
Time of big decisions
On September 1960, Lucille came to France at the "de la Conception" hospital, where she was higly estimated especially by her boss, who trusted her [6], while she had always been little confident about her skills.
She was glad to leave Quebec, because she looked down on canadian health system and it seemed immoral to her the fact that there were aprivate medicine and a public one, that rich patiens and poor one were not treated in the same way. She thought indeed that medicine was so interesting that doctors should pay for their honor to practise it [7]. There in Marsiglia she received an offer that would change her life: doctor Corti asked her to leave with him to be a surgeon in Africa and she accepted. Lucille would help him for a couple of months to start a surgical ward in Lacor Hospital, a small village of acoli tribe 11 km far from Gulu, city where they arrived after the landing in Entebbe, guided by Brother Toni Biasin, a combonian missionery who showed them the dispensary ruled by combonian nuns as nurses and midwives. It was made of a surgery and at leat 40 maternity beds and there Lucille started a bright career: on 10th June 1961 she did her first operation [8].
Lucille and Piero, who were falling in love, got married in the little hospital chapel on the 5th December 1961 and on the 17th November 1962 Lucille gave birth to their daughter Dominique [9].
Honours
- In 1986, she and her husband were awarded the World Health Organization's Sasakawa Health Prize, "given to one or more persons, institutions or nongovernmental organizations having accomplished outstanding innovative work in health development, in order to encourage the further development of such work". [1]
- In 1990, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
- In 1995, she was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.
- In 1999, Canada Post issued a 46-cent stamp in her honour.
- In 1999, Parc Lucille-Teasdale in Montreal was named in her honour.
- In 2001, she was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
- In 2001, Lucille-Teasdale secondary school in Blainville, Quebec was built and it has been named in her honour.
References
- ^ Arseneault p. 48
- ^ Arseneault p. 51
- ^ Arseneault p. 22
- ^ Arseneault p. 23
- ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.18
- ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.59
- ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.62
- ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.72
- ^ Michel Arseneault, Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea- Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004 pag.131
Bibliography
- Arseneault (2004). Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea. Torino: Paoline Editoriale Libri.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|firtst1=ignored (help) - "Lucille Teasdale". Retrieved 2006-01-26.
- Cowley, Deborah (2005). Lucille Teasdale: Doctor of Courage. XYZ Publishing. ISBN 1-894852-16-8.
- Famous Canadian Physicians: Dr. Lucille Teasdale at Library and Archives Canada