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 (1857-1885)
The
historic
Hospital
Dos de
Mayo has
the honor
of being
the
burial
place
of
a
Peruvian
National
Hero,
medical
student,
Daniel
Alcides Carrión. Born
in
Cerro
de
Pasco,
Perú,
he
grew
up
in
the
booming
mining
town
during
the
Gold
Rush.
He
later
studied
medicine
in
Lima,
at
the
National
University
of
San
Marcos,
in
the
San
Fernando
School
of
Medicine.
At
that
time,
two
fatal
diseases
appeared
to
be
devastating
the
Interandean
valleys
and
were
known
as
the
Fiebre
de
la
Oroya ,
(Fever
of
the
Oroya
Plains),
and
the
Verruga
Peruana ,
(Peruvian
Wart).
The
Fever
was
believed
to
be
caused
by
vapors,
or
miasmas,
emanating
from
rubble
left
behind
on
the
Oroya
Plains,
following
completion
of
the
Central
Railway.
When
the
prestigious
Peruvian
Academy
organized
a
contest
to
find
the
cause
of
the Verruga
Peruana,
Carrión
set out to prove that
the two diseases were
caused
by
one
microorganism.
On
August
27,
1885,
in
a
heroic
experiment,
he
asked
to
be
injected
with
the blood of a
dieing patient, and
wrote
his
own
clinical
history
for
21
days
before
becoming incapacitated,
at
which
time
his
colleagues
continued
the
clinical documentation
for
him.
The
date
of
his
death,
October
5,
1885,
is remembered
every
year
as
the
Day
of
Peruvian
Medicine.
The sacrifice
Carrión
made
in
the
name
of
medical
research
allowed doctors
to
identify
the Fiebre
de
la
Oroya and Verruga
Peruana as different
stages
of
the
same
disease,
and
proved
the
disease
to
be inoculative.
On
October
7,
1991,
the
Peruvian
Government
passed Law
No.
25342,
which
declares
Daniel
Alcides
Carrión
a
National Hero.
His
tomb,
located
on the
main
central
courtyard of
the
hospital,
is
often
visited
by
admiring
medical
students
and
doctors.
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