Christian Medical College, Vellore

Christian Medical College & Hospital

Entrance to the Main Hospital
Motto	Not to be ministered unto, but to minister
Type	Private
Established	1900
Principal	Anna Pulimood
Director	Peter John Victor
Location	Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India 12°55′29″N 79°08′10″E / 12.924815°N 79.136013°E / 12.924815; 79.136013Coordinates: 12°55′29″N 79°08′10″E / 12.924815°N 79.136013°E / 12.924815; 79.136013
Campus	Urban and Rural
Affiliations	Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University
Website	www.cmch-vellore.edu

Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMC) is a private, minority-run educational and research institute that includes a network of primary, secondary and tertiary care hospitals in and around Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the most respected medical destinations in India and internationally. It is also one of the top-ranked medical colleges in India. Founded in 1900 by an American missionary, Dr Ida S. Scudder, CMC has brought many significant achievements to India, including starting the first College of Nursing in 1946, performing the first reconstructive surgery for leprosy in the world (1948), performing the first successful open heart surgery in India (1961), performing the first kidney transplant in India (1971), performing first bone marrow transplantation (1986) in India and performing the first successful ABO incompatible kidney transplant in India (2009).

The hospital was founded by Dr. Ida Sophia Scudder in 1900. Ida Scudder was the daughter of second-generation medical missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Church in the United States of America (US) who served in India. She was born in 1870 in Tindivanam, which is approximately 60 miles from Madras (known as Chennai today). As a young girl she witnessed famine, poverty and death, and vowed that she would never follow in her parents' footsteps and become a missionary. The Scudder family returned to the US on furlough in 1878 and Ida began her education. Her parents returned to India, but Ida Scudder stayed in the US attending the Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies (now Northfield Mount Herman). In 1890, she was called back to India to care for her ailing mother.

It was at this time that Ida became acutely aware of the lack of medical services available to women and children in India, primarily due to cultural and religious norms that did not allow male practitioners to treat females. This awareness became the driving force of her life one evening in her parents' bungalow, when a young Indian man came to the door requesting Ida's help for his wife who was struggling in childbirth. He rejected Ida's father, Dr John Scudder's care and left. Two more men came that very night with similar requests, seeking medical help for their wives in labor, but again turning down John Scudder's care. The three women and their babies died that night. The incident shook 24-year-old Ida Scudder to the core.