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GET TO KNOW THE SAN GABRIEL HOSPITAL

THE FOUNDER

Dr. Lieselotte Bauer de Barragán was born in 1938. As a child, she liked to play with her neighbors, the children of a humble cobbler. One day, when the six-year-old Lieselotte went to visit the cobbler’s family to play with their baby girl, she noticed a small wooden box on the floor and the sad faces of everyone gathered around it. She moved closer to the box and saw the baby girl lying in it. Suddenly, the cobbler put a lid on the box and began to close it with a hammer and nails. Appalled, Lieselotte called for him to stop. “She is dead”, he responded. With tears in her eyes she ran home to her father and asked him why the baby girl had to die. “She couldn’t go to the doctor”, her father told her. “Why?” Lieselotte wondered. “Because the cobbler’s family has no money for the doctor”. At that moment Lieselotte decided to study medicine to be able to help those children in need.

 

In 1967, after having finished her medicine studies, Dr. Lieselotte Bauer de Barragán founded the San Gabriel Foundation building a nursery and consulting room as her first project. With hard work and international funding Lieselotte saw the inauguration of the San Gabriel Hospital in 1983.

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PRESENT

Since then the hospital has worked hard to improve the Bolivian health care system. For example, it supported the development of a model of maternal and child care services that resulted in the introduction of the state sponsored proposal called “Universal Maternal and Child Health Insurance”. This program was not only a leader in the field of health care in Latin America but has also been widely recognized by UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Bolivian Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare.

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SERVICES

The San Gabriel Hospital offers the following services:

  • Secondary health care with tertiary health services

  • Comprehensive health care in chronic and acute pathology

  • General surgery

  • Traumatology

  • Children’s therapy unit

  • Accommodation for 60 patients

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INITIATIVES

  • Diabetes School: Once per week, people suffering of diabetes are offered information about the disease, how to treat it and what the best nutrition and physical activity plan are for them. They get to talk to a physician and a nurse as well as to other patients.

  • Education: since the mid 80s, the San Gabriel Hospital teaches Bolivian and foreign medicine students, both in basic and post-graduate specializations.

AWARDS

  • 1991: "Pedro Domingo Murillo" Medal, in recognition to the service given to the population of the East Sanitary District of La Paz, granted by the Municipality of La Paz
     

  • 1992: Nomination "First Baby Friendly Hospital in Latin America and the Caribbean", granted by UNICEF, WHO, PAHO and the Health Ministry from Bolivia, highlighting that the health care services of the Saint Gabriel's Foundation are an incentive for other centers in the world.
     

  • 1994: "Clarence H. Moore" Award, for the contribution to promote community health care and the excellent organization of the Local Primary Health Care System, granted by the Pan-American Health Care and Education Foundation PAHEF
     

  • 1997: Accreditation of the San Gabriel Hospital, as the first Hospital of La Paz fulfilling all requirements of security and quality of attention that the Bolivian Government demands from a Hospital.

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