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Dr John Phillips (1880-1929)
Cleveland Clinic Beginnings
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A sense of cooperation shared by three friends of the clinic, Bunts, Crile and Lower acted as a unit. All were medical doctors and acted in the war. They were surgeons and in order to develop a broader field of medical service, they needed to add an internist to organize and head a department of medicine.
Dr. John Phillips was at the School of Medicine of Western Reserve, he had served in military hospitals during the war and held the same broad concept of what might be possible in a clinic organization.
John Phillips raised on a farm near Welland, was a serious minded person with a keen sense of humour. He obtained a teaching certificate, taught for three years, entered the faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto. In 1903 he received the M.B. degree with honours. After graduation he served for three years as an intern and resident in medicine at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland. He then entered practice as an associate n the office of Dr. E.F. Cushing, professor of Pediatrics at Western Reserve. Dr. Phillips was assistant professor in Medicine and Therapeutics at the Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He also held appointments at Babies’ Dispensory. He was also consulting physician at St John’s Hospital. He had a large private and consulting practice. He was highly regarded as a clinician and teaching in internal medicine and diseases of children. During WW I he served as a captain in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army.
The four founders of the Cleveland Clinic were all professors of medical schools,all highly regarded in the community and well established in the community hospital.They all had been in the military and were committed to the practice of medicine.
The first meeting of the incorporation was February 21, 1921. Designated founders were Bunts, Crile, Lowe and Phillips.
8pm on February 26, 1921 was the grand opening of Cleveland Clinic with 500 of the medical profession attending.
The clinic was located in a four storey building at East 93rd St. and Euclid Ave.
Dr. Phillips was trustee of the Cleveland Medical Library Association and a member of Allen Memorial Medical Library building committee.
Cleveland Clinic Disaster
On Wed. May 15, 1929 at 11.30am was the first explosion of toxic gases. X-ray films were stored in the basement in manila envelopes in file cabinets. It is believed 70,000 films were stored there. A leak was discovered in the steam line earlier, a jet stream flowed to where the film was stored. A cloud of yellow smoke was in the room. When firemen arrived the building was in a dense yellow brown cloud. The ground floor entrance was blocked by fumes.
Dr, Phillips had reached the ground by a ladder on the east side of the building. He sat on the steps of the church across the road and was taken to his apartment at the Wade Park Manor East 107th St. His condition worsened; at 7pm Dr. Crile went to his room and performed a transfusion. Dr, Phillips died at 8;30pm, he was 50.
The clinic disaster resulted in worldwide adoption of revised safety codes for storing films and making use of safety film that would not explode.
One hundred and twenty three people lost their lives. Dr Phillips was a posthumous inductee of the Medical Hall of Fame.
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