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Elizabeth Blackwell
lived in the 1800's. When she was 7 or 8, her family got kicked out
of their house because her dad couldn't pay the taxes. Her dad died
when she was 17. Her friend, Mary Donaldson, who was dying, suggested
that she become a doctor. Elizabeth decided she would be a doctor.
In 1847
she decided to apply to a major medical school. After she tried twenty
nine schools, she received a positive responce from Geneva Medical College
in upstate NewYork. The letter said that she had been voted on by everyone.
She graduated in 1849 at the top of her class. She finally started training
to be a doctor. She was cleaning the badly infected eye of an infant
and she accidently splashed a drop of water into her own eye. She had
treatments, and bandages were applied for the next three weeks but nothing
did any good. Elizabeth's career was over before it started. Six months
later she had the eye taken out and had it replaced with a glass eye.
Elizabeth had to borrow money from her friends to open a clinic in the
slums of lower Manhattan.
Elizabeth
adopted a seven-year-old Irish-born girl named Kitty. She was described
as "stupid" and "not very pretty." One of Elizabeth's dreams finally
came true when she was thirty-five. She had raised almost five thousand
dollars. Now she could open The NewYork Infirmary for Indigent Women
and Children. It formally opened on May 12,1857 with the help of friends.
The hospital only charged its patients four dollars a week and did not
charge if they couldn't afford it. As a result, the hospital was always
in financial need. When she was 58, she moved to a cottage where she
lived until she died. She started an autobiography but could not finish
it because she died on May 31,1910. She was 89 years old.
Contributions:
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman doctor. She helped many people
in many ways. If it had not been for her, alot of people would have
died. I think she should have won an award for best doctor in the world.
She helped people because they needed help, not because she wanted money.
When she wasn't accepted into one school, she tried another school.
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