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01-03-2018 | Images in Anesthesia
St. René Goupil: the patron saint of anesthesia
Published in: Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d'anesthésie | Issue 3/2018
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René Goupil (1608-1642) was a French surgeon and lay missionary who travelled with the Jesuits to New France in 1640. Despite developing an illness that rendered him deaf (and thus unable to be ordained a Jesuit), Goupil served at Saint Joseph de Sillery Mission (near Quebec City) and the nearby first Hôtel Dieu de Québec, where he cared for the sick, which included dressing wounds and performing blood letting.1,2
Figure
A photograph of a statue of St. René Goupil, the patron saint of anesthesia, which resides among a few other small statues representing the “Canadian martyrs” located in the Église de l’Immaculée-Conception in Montreal. This church was directed by Jesuit priests from 1898 to 1999 and can still be visited. Photograph courtesy of Daniel Chartrand
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