SOMERVILLE — In 1898, a 16-year-old boy with a head injury died after he was unable to get prompt medical treatment, saddening the community and sparking an outcry for a local hospital. A hospital with a dozen beds and 10 doctors opened three years later at a converted house on Main Street, according to the hospital's website. The house...
Exterior of Somerset Medical Center where Gov. Chris Christie has been hospitalized. SOMERVILLE — In 1898, a 16-year-old boy with a head injury died after he was unable to get prompt medical treatment, saddening the community and sparking an outcry for a local hospital.
A hospital with a dozen beds and 10 doctors opened three years later at a converted house on Main Street, according to the hospital's website.
The house and subsequent buildings and additions have become a home for thousands of patients over the last 110 years, perhaps most notably Gov. Chris Christie today.
A long way from the 12-bed hospital of 1901, Somerset Medical Center today is an accredited 355-bed regional facility that provides a range of emergency, surgical and rehabilitative services, the site says.
It recently finished its largest ever expansion project, including a 40,000-square-foot emergency department that can handle up to 60,000 patients per year, inpatient oncology and surgical pavilions and expanded surgical suites.
The $25 million Steeplechase Cancer Center, which opened four years ago, integrates cancer care services in one location. Proceeds from the popular Far Hills steeplechase races every autumn go toward the center and have totaled more than $17 million since the 1950s, according to the site.
On a much less proud note, the medical center was at the center of the investigation into New Jersey’s most prolific serial killer, nurse Charles Cullen, who worked there for 13 months in 2002-03. The nurse, who injected the sick with the heart-slowing medication digoxin, killed 13 patients at the medical center — the last stop in a 16-year career in which he took the lives of 29 people at hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Previous coverage:
• Gov. Chris Christie to be released from hospital today after having difficulty breathing
• Gov. Christie's hospitalization prompts varied reactions from Twitter
• Gov. Chris Christie is the latest of several New Jersey governors to wind up in the hospital
• Gov. Christie is not alone: Asthma affects millions nationwide
• Gov. Christie is taken to hospital after having difficulty breathing
• Gov. Chris Christie goes to hospital after having trouble breathing en route to event