MANILA, Philippines - National scientist Dr. Fe del Mundo died of cardiac arrest yesterday morning. She would have been 100 on Nov. 27.
A four-day wake will be held at the conference hall of the Fe del Mundo Medical Center (formerly Children’s Medical Center), after which her body will be transferred to the Sto. Domingo Church in Quezon City.
Her remains will be interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani on Thursday.
Dr. Yolanda Oliveros, former director of the Department of Health’s (DOH) National Center for Disease Prevention and Control and a pediatrician, said the death of Del Mundo is a “big loss” to Philippine pediatrics.
“We consider her as the Mother of Philippine Pediatrics and a very great scientist. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, she is the one who invented the incubator for Philippine setting,” she noted.
Oliveros said the country also produced good pediatricians due to Del Mundo’s leadership.
“She is a big loss to the Philippines. She also worked well with the DOH during my time when we were developing the tuberculosis in children protocol. That was in early 2005 until the protocol was issued. She was that active in the medical field,” she told The STAR.
Del Mundo graduated valedictorian from the University of the Philippines’ medical school in 1933. Three years later, she was accepted at the Harvard Medical School for post-graduate courses on a scholarship.
She actually made history for being the first woman and first Asian to get into Harvard Medical School. The school could not turn her away due to her outstanding credentials.
Del Mundo received numerous citations, awards and recognitions. These include the prestigious Elizabeth Blackwell Award, which was named after the first woman in the America to receive a medical degree; the 1977 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service; and was named the first Filipina National Scientist in 1978.
“Del Mundo had often been told by her professors that, weighing less than 100 pounds, she was too small to handle patients,” according to her official biography posted at the Magsaysay Awardees Digital Collection website.
Del Mundo’s scientific investigations ranged from measurements of 10,839 newborn babies, and commonly missed children’s diseases, to rheumatic infections and herpangina, it added.
Del Mundo was never married and dedicated her entire life to her patients and doing research on diseases that afflict children. She also selflessly trained several pediatricians in the Philippines and abroad.
Her nephew and former DOH Undersecretary Dr. Jade del Mundo remembers her as a “caring and loving auntie” who took care of him and the other members of the family.
“She was a very caring and loving auntie. When we were confined in hospital for dengue, she personally attended to us. I was four years old then and I was the first to have dengue in the Philippines,” he said.
In the mid-50s, Del Mundo secured a loan to put up a hospital – that is now named after her – for curative and preventive care.
When they encountered funding problems during the acquisition of equipment and the construction of the third and fourth floors of the hospital, Del Mundo sold her house and lot.