Lucille Teasdale-Corti

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Dr. Lucille Teasdale-Corti (January 30, 1929 – August 1, 1996) was a Canadian physician, surgeon and international aid worker, who helped the people of Uganda and contributed to the development of medical services in the country.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, she attended medical school at the Université de Montréal and, in 1955, became the first Quebec woman to get her diploma as a surgeon. While she was interning at the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal hospital she met her future husband, Pietro Corti. Moving to Uganda in the 1960s, she and her husband founded St. Mary's Hospital Lacor in northern Uganda, 6 KM west of Gulu. Despite threats, fear and war, she worked at the hospital for 34 years, performing more the 13,000 surgeries. She died from AIDS in 1996, after contracting HIV in 1985 from cutting herself during surgery.

In 2000, a television biographical film, Dr. Lucille: The Lucille Teasdale Story was aired on the Canadian CTV television network which told her story. Directed by George Mihalka, it starred Marina Orsini, Massimo Ghini, and Louis Gossett Jr.

[edit] Honours

In 1986, she and her husband were awarded the World Health Organization's Sasakawa Health Prize, "given to one or more persons, institutions or nongovernmental organizations having accomplished outstanding innovative work in health development, in order to encourage the further development of such work". [1]
In 1990, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
In 1995, she was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.
In 1999, Canada Post issued a 46-cent stamp in her honour.
In 1999, Parc Lucille-Teasdale in Montreal was named in her honour.
In 2001, she was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.