Historic First Responders

May 4, 2021

Historic First Responders

A new park commemorates those who died helping the victims of a 19th-century epidemic. When the Ireland Park Foundation began planning Dr. George Robert Grasett Park to honour the medical professionals who sacrificed their lives to treat the victims of the 1847 typhus epidemic, it would have been hard to imagine just how relevant their project would be to the present. “It’s extraordinary that the park will open in the latter stages of a pandemic or shortly thereafter,” observes Robert Kearns, founder and chair of the foundation. From that time to the present, medical professionals have provided the frontline defence against outbreaks of illness, ranging from typhus to COVID-19. Often put- ting their own health at risk, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers try to bring comfort, hope, and treatment to those facing life-threatening illnesses. Download the full article, courtesy of Spacing Magazine

About This News Item:

By Jamie Bradburn

Published in Spacing Magazine

May 2021 (Issue 56)

 

Share this

Related News

  • Glowing beacon of history

    Article by Jack Landau, published by BlogTO.

    April 12, 2023
  • Toronto park honours a doctor who died in the 1847 epidemic

    By Alex Bozikovic, The Globe and Mail.

    July 16, 2021
  • A Toronto park aims to honour the doctor who gave Irish migrants compassion in a cruel summer

    By John Doyle. Published June 18, 2017 in the Globe & Mail.

    June 18, 2017