Dr. Ida Sophia Scudder (9th December 1870 - 24th May 1960) was a third generation American medical missionary in India. in 1918, she started one of Asia's foremost teaching hospitals, the Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, India.
As a child in India, she saw much famine, poverty and disease and thus did not relish the idea of spending her adulthood here. After struggling in the United States, she had to return to India to help her ailing mother at the mission bungalow at Tindivanam. But, during that stay, she had the enlightening experience of not being able to help three women in child birth, who died needlessly in one night. She was convinced that God wanted her to become a physician to help the women of India. She never married.
She graduated from Cornell Medical College in New York City in 1899, as a part of the first class at that school that accepted women as medical students. She then headed back to India, fortified with a $10,000 grant from a Manhatten banker in memory of his wife. With the money, she set up a tiny dispensary and clinic for women at Vellore (75 miles from Madras). In two years, she treated over 5,000 patients. As a consequence, she opened the Mary Taber Sehell Hospital in 1902.
The idea that Indian women must be taught to care for other Indian women led Ida to create Vellore's nursing school. As soon as it opened, she set her sights yet higher - if she could train nurses, she could train doctors. In no time at all, Vellore became a medical college. Friends abroad helped her raise funds to support Vellore as it grew. A common ideology among them prevailed - what you are building is not a medical school but a kingdom of God.
Scudder died at the age of 90 of a circulatory ailment in Kodaikanal.
As a child in India, she saw much famine, poverty and disease and thus did not relish the idea of spending her adulthood here. After struggling in the United States, she had to return to India to help her ailing mother at the mission bungalow at Tindivanam. But, during that stay, she had the enlightening experience of not being able to help three women in child birth, who died needlessly in one night. She was convinced that God wanted her to become a physician to help the women of India. She never married.
She graduated from Cornell Medical College in New York City in 1899, as a part of the first class at that school that accepted women as medical students. She then headed back to India, fortified with a $10,000 grant from a Manhatten banker in memory of his wife. With the money, she set up a tiny dispensary and clinic for women at Vellore (75 miles from Madras). In two years, she treated over 5,000 patients. As a consequence, she opened the Mary Taber Sehell Hospital in 1902.
The idea that Indian women must be taught to care for other Indian women led Ida to create Vellore's nursing school. As soon as it opened, she set her sights yet higher - if she could train nurses, she could train doctors. In no time at all, Vellore became a medical college. Friends abroad helped her raise funds to support Vellore as it grew. A common ideology among them prevailed - what you are building is not a medical school but a kingdom of God.
Scudder died at the age of 90 of a circulatory ailment in Kodaikanal.
