Yahoo News The abandoned hospital in a Cambridgeshire village where TB patients were treated
Cambridge is known as a leading city for medical advances with some incredible hospitals. But one of those pioneering hospitals – the Royal Papworth Hospital – was, until relatively recently, based in a village just outside Cambridge.
As its name suggests, the hospital was previously located in Papworth Everard, where it was based for 101 years. It officially closed on May 4, 2019, before moving to its new location on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Since then, the hospital has been fenced off, with signs warning of guard dogs on patrol. The former hospital site was sold to property developer Cambridge West Holdings which aims to build a nursing care facility and residential housing on the site – although no planning applications appear to have been submitted yet.
Though the hospital's future has not yet been determined, it has a long and storied past. It was founded in 1918 as a sanatorium to treat tuberculosis patients and became known as the 'Cambridgeshire Tuberculosis Colony' after relocating from nearby Bourn.
The first 17 patients arrived at Papworth Hall in February 1918 – many were soldiers who had fought in France and Belgium. The war saw cases of tuberculosis skyrocket, with the infectious disease killing thousands each year.
They were treated by Dr Pendrill Varrier-Jones, who began his scheme with a £5,000 donation from a wealthy philanthropist – around £238,150 in today's money. Patients were treated with fresh air and light, as well as gruesome-sounding treatments that including the removal of ribs.
The treatment blocks were handed to the NHS in 1948 and the expansion of the facility began. Staff at the hospital also began to develop expertise in other areas of chest medicine.
The first-ever open heart surgery was performed at Papworth Hospital in 1958 by Ben Milstein, to repair a hole in a woman's heart. The patient celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the operation with her surgeon in 1998.
The hospital was also the site of the first-ever successful heart transplant by surgeon Terence English in 1979. The patient lived for more than five years after the surgery.
Two more 'firsts' were achieved at the hospital, when in 1986 the first heart, lung, and liver transplant was carried out by John Wallwork and Roy Calne. And a revolutionary operation said Arthur Cornhill given the world's first permanent battery-operated heart in 1994.
Urban explorers have visited the hospital since its official closure – an act we do not recommend. Photographs of the abandoned interior from 2020 show wards with beds and trolleys left behind, operating theatres with movable lights still in place, and X-ray and CT scanner machines frozen in time.
