St. Boniface Hospital

The first four-bed hospital was in a 20 by 30 foot building.

Lacking space, the Grey Nuns had to refuse patients at their hospital. With no more place in the Convent, or the Orphanage, they undertook the construction of a new building which became the north wing of the hospital. Father Gabriel Cloutier, the hospital’s chaplain, was put in charge of supervising the construction. The architect was Henry Peters, and the building contractors were James Perrault, and Joseph and Ernest Cyr.

Finished in 1888, the new brick construction measured 80 by 40 feet and could house sixty beds. The wing was demolished in 1953 to make room for a new construction. It is interesting to note in the photo that the small building on the right of the new building is in fact the original hospital built in 1871.

In 1891, the Grey Nuns purchased, through Dr. Dame, an operating chair that could be modified into nine different positions. The chair cost $70 and was purchased in New York. There were no operating rooms in the hospital built in 1887. The room with the bay window was used.

The transversal wing of the hospital was built in 1894 by the architect Joseph Sénécal. The Grey Nuns bought the necessary land for $2,000 and the new three-floor construction measured 140 by 50 feet, bringing the hospital’s capacity to 125 beds.

There were two operating rooms, one room for the dressing of wounds, a sterilisation room and a pharmacy. In 1894, 24 sisters, 8 lay nurses, 6 male nurses and 33 other employees worked at the hospital.

During the year, 2,035 persons received treatment at the hospital. Of those, 65 died (43 men and 22 women). The personnel was composed of one chaplain, 21 sisters, two novice sisters and one auxiliary sister, 8 nurses, 8 male nurses, 8 men for other duties and 25 female workers. The Grey Nuns also supplied room and board to five school-aged children.

St. Boniface Hospital in 1910. Founded by the Grey Nuns in 1871, the first small four-bed hospital was, by 1910, an important health services centre. The first brick structure was built in 1887, and additions were built in 1894 and in 1905. The construction of the south wing increased the hospital’s capacity by 350 beds.

The laboratory facilities in 1912. An analysis of all the specimens used at the time could be done in this laboratory.

Before the construction of the sterilisation room, instruments were sterilized in a pot on the kitchen stove.

A Grey Nun working in the pharmacy in 1915.

Chloroform was used then to anesthetise patients, although other types of anesthesia could be used as was the case with Mrs. Gadbois. Suffering from an enormous tumour, chloroform could not be used because of her heart condition. Instead of chloroform, the doctors used cocaine. Gas was first used to anesthetise patients in 1919.

The Radiology Department was created in 1911. The X-ray machine was purchased from Ancel et Frères, from Paris, with the help of Father Rousseau. In 1916, the X-ray machine was moved to its new locale, specially built for its use.

The Maternity Department exists since 1895, although it opened its doors officially three years later.

Photograph of the St. Boniface Hospital in 1941.

Because it was deemed a fire hazard, the north wing of the hospital was demolished in 1953 to make way for a new construction. The new 8-storey building was designed by architects from the firm Green, Blankstein, Russell and Associates. The grand opening of the hospital was held on May 17, 1955.

With the new wing, the hospital’s capacity increases to 671 beds and 78 cribs. The hospital became the most modern institution in all of Canada. The wing had 13 new operating rooms and a new post-operation department.

The first open-heart surgery was performed in 1959 on a 5 year-old boy from Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes in Manitoba who suffered from a small perforation in the heart. The intervention lasted seven hours and was performed by a surgical team composes of doctors Cohen, Burrell and Culligan, assisted by the nurse Yvonne Daigle. The operation was a success.

A view of the St. Boniface Hospital from the other side of the Red River in 1968.