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Physical Therapy

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The seeds of this project start with reflecting on my grandmother, Lumida Rodriguez Viscal. In my family, she was the first person to enter a medical profession when she became a licensed physical therapist in 1953. I remember her telling me stories of her work with polio patients. However, by all accounts, she did not particularly want to become a physical therapist. My mother says she really wanted to be a doctor; my aunt says that she wanted to pursue further studies in chemistry, an interest she developed as an undergraduate. Both, however, remember hearing from her that “the scholarships that year were for physical therapy.” So this project starts with trying to understand why and how my grandmother became a physical therapist. …show more content…

His studies in France overlapped with the 1848 revolution, which informed his political thinking. He also became a staunch abolitionist. He returned to Puerto Rico in 1856, a year that saw a cholera epidemic ravage Puerto Rico (centered around Mayaguez), and Betances established and managed a temporary hospital to deal with the epidemic. He also worked with the local government to try to limit the spread of the disease. He subsequently established a successful surgical and ophthalmological practice in Mayaguez. During this time, he introduced new surgical and aseptic techniques to the island and performed the first surgery under chloroform in 1862, alongside a Venezuelan anesthesiologist. He also was fundamental in establishing the Hospital San Antonio, a municipal hospital in Mayaguez which served the local indigent community. He was exiled from Puerto Rico prior to the Grito de Lares in 1868, and after the uprising was quelled, Betances moved briefly to New York before settling permanently in Paris. He remained heavily involved in Caribbean politics, and was one of the major organizers of the Intentona de Yauco, a second Puerto Rican uprising against Spain that occurred in 1897. After the sinking of the USS Maine in January 1898, Betances worked to try to prevent the United States from taking over Puerto Rico, but he died in September of that year. (Rodríguez Vázquez, Eduardo, Dr. Ramón Emeterio Betances: el medico;

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