Erasto Gaertner Hospital

The Erasto Gaertner Hospital was created on the initiative of Dr. Erasto Gaertner, who, on 2 January 1952, donated a land of 62,500 square metres (673,000 sq ft) to the Paraná League for Combat of Cancer (Liga Paranaense de Combate ao Cancer - LPCC) for the construction of what today is the Erasto Gaertner Hospital. On 11 June 1955, the hospital's cornerstone was placed.^[2]

Before being officially inaugurated, patients with cancer were treated since 1970 when Paulo Pimentel, governor of Paraná State, donated a cobalt pump, that allowed 47 sessions of radiotherapy per day. The local community and volunteers gathered resources to finalize and effectively inaugurate the Erasto Gaertner Hospital on 8 December 1972.^[2]

In the beginning, the Erasto Gaertner offered basic clinical and surgical care, attending few patients in an operating room, with a radiotherapy device and the cobalt pump.^[2]

Nowadays, the hospital is considered the largest cancer treatment center in South Brazil.^[3]