Happy Birthday to Rainbow!
University Hospitals (UH) Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital is celebrating 120 years of caring for babies and children.
On Thanksgiving Day 1887, a group of generous women known as the Rainbow Circle of the King’s Daughters met to discuss how to give back to Cleveland’s children in need. What started then as a simple idea of caring for children is still prevalent today in the lifesaving work of physicians, nurses and child life advocates who make Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital a world-class health care destination for children and their families.
Since opening in 1887, Rainbow has been credited with many notable accomplishments in the field of pediatrics, including developing the first baby formulas and opening the first cystic fibrosis center in the country. Rainbow also was among the first to open neonatal intensive care units to treat premature infants.
In 2007, Rainbow was once again ranked number one in the Midwest among children’s hospitals and number five in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The legacy lives on from that first Thanksgiving meeting and will continue with the generosity of many who support Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.
Throughout 2008, UH will host a series of events highlighting the great work of the men and women of Rainbow, and honoring the children and families who have benefited most from their dedication through the past 120 years.
To honor the 120th anniversary occasion, two longtime physicians, Samuel Horowitz, MD, and Carl Doerschuk, MD, teamed up with a former UH archivist Nancy Erdey, PhD, to publish a 260-page book, titled For the Children, which shares the deep-rooted heritage of the hospital and captures the spirit of the Rainbow legacy.