Mt. San Rafael Hospital

Last updated
Mt. San Rafael Hospital
Mt. San Rafael Hospital.JPG
The hospital's main façade.
Mt. San Rafael Hospital
USA Colorado location map.svg
Red pog.svg
The hospital's location in Colorado.
Geography
Location Trinidad, Las Animas County, Colorado, United States
Coordinates 37°10′23″N104°29′15″W / 37.17306°N 104.48750°W / 37.17306; -104.48750 Coordinates: 37°10′23″N104°29′15″W / 37.17306°N 104.48750°W / 37.17306; -104.48750
Organization
Care system Private
Type General
Affiliated university None
Services
Emergency department Level IV trauma center
Beds25 [1]
Helipad Yes
History
Opened1889
Links
Website www.msrhc.org
Lists Hospitals in Colorado

Mt. San Rafael Hospital is a general hospital in Trinidad, Colorado. Founded in 1889, the hospital is a level IV trauma center. [2] It is notable for being a pioneer in sex-change operations, with the hospital's first of thousands of such surgeries being completed there in 1969. [3]

Contents

History

Armed strikers in front of the hospital, April 1914. Armed strikers in front of San Rafael, Trinidad, Colorado, 1914.png
Armed strikers in front of the hospital, April 1914.

The hospital was originally established in 1889 by the Sisters of Charity. Renovations and additions were completed in 1906 and 1959. In 1969, the hospital was secularized and bought by the Trinidad Area Health Association, an organization that continues to own and run the facility. A completely new hospital building was constructed and opened in 1972 and continues to serve as Mt. San Rafael's main building today. [4]

In January 1914, the hospital was used by General John Chase of the Colorado National Guard to hold labor activist Mother Jones during the 1913-1914 Colorado Coalfield War. [5] Following the Ludlow Massacre, armed strikers took control of Trinidad and the hospital.

Sex-change operations

The hospital's sex-change surgery service led to Trinidad being named the "sex-change capital of the world." Resident surgeon Dr. Stanley Biber performed the hospital's first sex-change operation in 1969, and thousands of additional sex-change operations were performed there [3] until Biber's successor left following a dispute in 2010. [6] [7]

Related Research Articles

Walsenburg, Colorado City in Colorado, United States

The City of Walsenburg is the Statutory City that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 3,068 at the 2010 census, down from 4,182 in 2000.

Aguilar, Colorado Town in Colorado, United States

The Town of Aguilar is a Statutory Town located in Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 456 at the 2020 United States Census. Cattleman and prominent pioneer José Ramón Aguilar founded the town in 1894.

Trinidad, Colorado City in Colorado, United States

Trinidad is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The population was 8,329 as of the 2020 census. Trinidad lies 21 mi (34 km) north of Raton, New Mexico, and 195 mi (314 km) south of Denver. It is on the historic Santa Fe Trail.

Ludlow Massacre April 1914 massacre of strikers and families during the Colorado Coalfield War

The Ludlow Massacre was a mass killing perpetrated by anti-striker militia during the Colorado Coalfield War. Soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private guards employed by Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) attacked a tent colony of roughly 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Approximately 21 people, including miners' wives and children, were killed. John D. Rockefeller Jr., a part-owner of CF&I who had recently appeared before a United States congressional hearing on the strikes, was widely blamed for having orchestrated the massacre.

"Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" is the first episode in the ninth season of the American animated television series South Park. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 9, 2005. In the episode, Mr. Garrison undergoes a sex change after feeling that he is a "woman trapped in a man's body". Garrison's operation inspires Kyle and his father Gerald to undergo cosmetic surgery themselves.

Stanley H. Biber was an American physician who was a pioneer in sex reassignment surgery, performing thousands of procedures during his long career.

John Muir Health is a hospital network headquartered in Walnut Creek, California and serving Contra Costa County, California and surrounding communities. It was formed in 1997 from the merger of John Muir Medical Center and Mount Diablo Medical Center.

Frank Hayes (unionist)

Frank J. Hayes was an American miner and president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) from 1917 to 1919. A Democrat, he also served as Lieutenant Governor of Colorado in 1937–39.

Marci Lee Bowers is an American gynecologist and surgeon who specializes in gender confirmation surgeries. Bowers is viewed as an innovator in gender confirmation/affirmation surgery, and is the first transgender woman to perform such surgeries.

Louis Tikas

Louis Tikas, born Elias Anastasios Spantidakis, was the main labor union organizer at the Ludlow camp during the 14-month strike known as the Colorado Coalfield War in southern Colorado, between September 1913 and December 1914; described as "the bloodiest civil insurrection in American history since the Civil War". He was shot and killed during the Ludlow Massacre, the bloodiest event of the strike, on 20 April, 1914.

Karl Linderfelt

Karl E. Linderfelt was a soldier, mine worker, soldier of fortune, and officer in the Colorado National Guard. He was reported to have been responsible for an attack upon, and the ultimate death of, strike leader Louis Tikas during the Ludlow Massacre. He was the son of librarian Klas August Linderfelt.

The Baptist Medical Center sex reassignment surgery controversy occurred in 1977 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Surgeons at the Baptist Medical Center, a hospital owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, were prohibited from performing sex reassignment surgery.

Colorado National Guard Component of the US Army and military of the state of Colorado

The Colorado National Guard consists of the Colorado Army National Guard and Colorado Air National Guard, forming the state of Colorado's component to the United States National Guard. Founded in 1860, the Colorado National Guard falls under the Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

John Chase (general)

John Chase was an American medical doctor and commander of the Colorado National Guard. He was the commander of the Colorado National Guard in several of the most significant confrontations between American military forces and organized labor — the Colorado Labor Wars of 1903-1904, Colorado Coalfield War, and the Ludlow Massacre of April 1914. He was a graduate of the University of Michigan where he played college football for the 1879 Michigan Wolverines football team, the first football team to represent the University of Michigan, and was captain of the 1880 team.

Colorado Coalfield War 1913-1914 labor uprising in Southern Colorado

The Colorado Coalfield War, or Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913–1914, was a major labor uprising in the Southern and Central Colorado Front Range between September 1913 and December 1914. Striking began in late summer 1913, organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) after years of deadly working conditions and low pay. The strike was marred by targeted and indiscriminate attacks from both strikers and individuals hired by CF&I to defend its property. Conflict was focused in the southern coal-mining counties of Las Animas and Huerfano, where the Colorado and Southern railroad passed through Trinidad and Walsenburg. It followed the 1912 Northern Colorado Coalfield Strikes.

Trinidad is an American documentary film by Jay Hodges and PJ Raval. The film was screened at the IFP Market and IFP Rough Cuts Lab. In 2009, the film premiered on Showtime.

<i>Sex Change Hospital</i>

Sex Change Hospital is an American documentary-style reality television series about 12 transgender people who have sex reassignment surgery at the Mt. San Rafael Hospital in Trinidad, Colorado, under the care of OB/GYN Marci Bowers. The patients talk about their lives and viewers follow them through their consultations with Bowers, the surgical procedures, and their post-surgical experience.

Hildreth Frost

Hildreth Frost (1880-1955) was a lawyer and soldier from Colorado who commanded Company A of the 2nd Infantry Regiment during the Colorado Coalfield War. He also served as Judge Advocate for the military courts-martial for prosecuting members of the Colorado National Guard following the Ludlow Massacre.

Victor-American Fuel Company, also styled as the Victor Fuel Company, was a coal mining company, primarily focused on operations in the US states of Colorado and New Mexico during the first half of the Twentieth Century. Prior to a 1909 reorganization, the business was known as the American Fuel Company.

Berwind, Colorado Ghost town in Las Animas County, Colorado

Berwind is a ghost town in Las Animas County, Colorado, nestled in Berwind Canyon 3.1 miles (5.0 km) southwest of Ludlow and 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Trinidad. The settlement was founded in 1888 as a company town for the Colorado Coal & Iron Company and, from 1892, was operated by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. It was a battle site in October 1913 and April 1914 during the Colorado Coalfield War, housing a Colorado National Guard encampment during the latter stages of the conflict.

References

  1. "American Hospital Directory". 2018-07-10. Retrieved 2018-08-28. Total Staffed Beds: 25
  2. "Trauma Facilities". Southern Colorado Regional EMS & Trauma Advisory Council. Retrieved 2018-08-28. Level IV Trauma Center.
  3. 1 2 Pressley, Sue Anne (1998-05-13). "In the Rockies, a gender crossroads". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
  4. "History". Mt. San Rafael Hospital. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
  5. Sunseri, Alvin (1972). The Ludlow Massacre: A study in the mis-employment of the National Guard. University of Northern Iowa. OCLC   6654774.
  6. Augé, Karen (2010-12-12). "Well-known Trinidad sex-reassignment doctor leaves" . The Denver Post. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
  7. Verlee, Megan (28 October 2010). "Trinidad Loses 'Sex-Change' Doc". Colorado Public Radio . Retrieved 16 February 2022.