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Milestones

Since its founding, Yale New Haven Hospital has been a major contributor to the advances in medicine, science and technology. Many of Yale New Haven Hospital's achievements involve significant "firsts" in the field of medicine.

1813 Dr. Eli Ives presents the country's first pediatric course at Yale Medical College
1826 General Hospital Society of Connecticut is established; Connecticut's first and the nation's fourth voluntary hospital
1833 First permanent hospital building opens
1862 U.S. Government leases hospital during the Civil War, renaming it Knight U.S. Army General Hospital
1871 New Haven Dispensary opens as city's first outpatient clinic
1873 New Haven Hospital opens the Connecticut Training School, one of the nation's first three nursing schools
1884 Name of State Hospital changes to New Haven Hospital
1896 Grace School of Nursing founded
Arthur Wright produces first X-ray in the U.S. at Yale University
1913 First formal agreement with Yale School of Medicine
1933 Established one of the first organized hospital volunteer departments in the country
1942 First successful clinical use of penicillin in U.S
First use of chemotherapy as a cancer treatment in the U.S.
1945 Grace Hospital merges with New Haven Hospital to form Grace-New Haven Hospital
1946 First U.S. hospital to allow healthy newborns to stay in rooms with mothers
1947 Opens the rheumatic fever-cardiac clinic, one of the nation's first regional children's heart centers
1949 Developed first artificial heart pump in the U.S.
First U.S. hospital to introduce natural childbirth as a general service for all obstetrical patients
1952 First cornea transplant in Connecticut
1954 First high energy radiation treatment unit in Connecticut
1956 First open heart surgery in Connecticut
1957 First hospital to use fetal heart monitoring
First peritoneal dialysis in Connecticut
1958 First hemodialysis in Connecticut
First kidney biopsy in Connecticut
1959 Discovery of melatonin
1960 World's first intensive care unit for newborns
1963 First linear accelerator for cancer treatment in Connecticut
1965 Grace-New Haven Hospital becomes Yale New Haven Hospital
1966 Phrenic nerve pacemaker allows quadriplegics to breathe without a respirator
1967 First kidney transplant in Connecticut
1972 First hospital-based newborn screening program for sickle cell anemia in the U.S.
1975 Lyme disease identified and named
1976 First in Connecticut to treat cancer with photons and electrons
1979 First insulin infusion pump for diabetes
1982 First AIDS clinic in Connecticut
1983 First liver transplant in Connecticut
First in vitro fertilization birth in New England
1984 First heart transplant in Connecticut
First skin bank in New England
1985 First fetal cardiovascular center in the U.S.
First hospital-based inpatient child psychiatric unit in Connecticut
1987 First use of photopheresis in Connecticut
1988 First bone marrow transplant in Connecticut
First heart-lung transplant in Connecticut
1989 First pancreas transplant in Connecticut
1990 First single lung transplant in Connecticut
1991 First in Connecticut to use Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) life support system
1992 First heart transplant from an unmatched donor in Connecticut
1993 First in Connecticut to use non-invasive stereotactic breast biopsy
Yale New Haven Children's Hospital becomes first full-service children's hospital in Connecticut
1995 First hospital in Connecticut to launch an Internet website, coinciding with the Special Olympic World games being held in New Haven
1997 First in Connecticut to use inhaled nitric oxide to treat infants with pulmonary hypertension
First documented heart transplants of adult identical twins, one in 1992, second in 1997
1998 First patient in New England discharged with a left ventricular assist device
2003 First in New England to transplant a Jarvik2000 ventricular assist device into a failing heart
2007 First in Connecticut to perform split-liver transplants and living-donor liver transplants
2008 First in Connecticut to perform an "invisible incision" appendectomy, know as "Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES)," in which surgery is performed through the body's natural openings
2017 First in Connecticut to perform an 18-patient linked living donor swap, one of the largest at one center in the United States