In: Biology
Describe the career of Dr. Virginia Alexander.
Dr. Virginia Alexander is the founder of Aspiranto Health Home in Philadelphia. She cared for the African American community in America and also as general medical care and emergency treatment. During World War II she cared for coal and iron miners as a public health physician in Alabama. African American physicians were discriminated against in many medical institutions, and no Philadelphia hospital would accept Alexander for practical training. She moved to Kansas City for her internship. Within a few years, she was back in Philadelphia, running her own community health clinic and serving on the faculty of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Alexander's Aspiranto Health Home, also provided care for new mothers and their babies. Despite lack of funds, services of two weeks of post-natal recuperation at the health home were also given. Virginia Alexander provide care for America's most neglected populations. Often working in difficult conditions without charging any fees for her services, she brought proper medical care to disadvantaged African American patients and families.
Alexander volunteered for the government, and was sent to the coal fields of Birmingham, Alabama, to treat coal and iron miners living in extreme poverty. It was there that she developed lupus, that would ultimately lead to her death at age 49.