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Mount Auburn Hospital

Mount Auburn Hospital is a community teaching hospital at 330 Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1886 as Cambridge’s first hospital, it provides emergency, acute inpatient, and outpatient care and is affiliated with Harvard Medical School. It became part of Beth Israel Lahey Health in 2019.

Overview

The hospital serves Cambridge and the surrounding Boston-area communities. Its emergency department receives people arriving by ambulance or through the public entrance and can arrange laboratory testing, diagnostic imaging, stabilization, admission, or transfer according to the patient’s needs.

Mount Auburn was the hospital that treated Alastair Hargreaves after his February 15, 2011 collapse at Harvard University. His several-day admission included emergency treatment for profound hypotension, evaluation of a fractured rib, observation for suspected internal bleeding, communication through British Sign Language, and a brief hospital social-services review of his extensive bruising.

Location and Site Access

Mount Auburn Hospital is located on Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge. Its emergency department operates continuously and has a dedicated entrance for emergency arrivals. The hospital can also be reached by public transportation, car, bicycle, or pedestrian routes.

Clinical and Public Areas

The emergency department supports triage, monitored treatment, intravenous access, emergency stabilization, and coordination with imaging and laboratory services. People who require continued care may be admitted for inpatient treatment or observation after emergency evaluation.

During Alastair’s 2011 admission, staff used monitored emergency treatment space while his blood pressure was unstable and transferred him for chest imaging after the fall. His later observation included repeat blood testing, respiratory monitoring, pain and nausea treatment, and continuing assessment of the rib injury.

Environmental Conditions

The emergency department’s fluorescent lighting, monitor alarms, equipment noise, staff movement, and repeated procedures added sensory strain during Alastair’s acute illness. Pain and overload contributed to the loss of his spoken language during intake and the first part of his admission.

Accessibility and Communication

The facility provided wheelchair-accessible routes and medical equipment. During Alastair’s emergency intake, however, no BSL interpreter arrived before rapid clinical communication was required. Siobhan Hargreaves translated his signing while staff assessed and treated him.

The emergency and inpatient environments did not provide the quiet or lighting control Alastair used for regulation at home. Siobhan helped staff recognize when speech was unavailable, translated BSL, and advocated for slower communication when his condition allowed it.

Hospital social services also reviewed Alastair’s extensive bruising after a nurse questioned whether he was being harmed at home. The bruises included marks of different ages and appeared more extensive than the injury from that day’s fall. The review closed after Siobhan explained his longstanding easy bruising, osteoporosis, joint instability, and unresolved connective-tissue history and the medical context was confirmed.

History

Mount Auburn Hospital opened in 1886 as the first hospital in Cambridge. It developed into a community teaching hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School and joined Beth Israel Lahey Health in 2019.

Associated People

Alastair Hargreaves

Main article: Alastair’s Fall and Hospitalization (February 2011)

Alastair arrived by ambulance after losing consciousness in the Harvard English Department lounge, falling from his wheelchair, and fracturing one rib. During emergency intake, his blood pressure fell from 73/42 to 68/38 and then became temporarily unreadable. He lost consciousness again but retained a weak carotid pulse. Staff gave oxygen and intravenous fluids, summoned an emergency team, and stabilized him without cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Chest imaging and serial blood tests investigated possible bleeding from the blunt chest trauma and rib fracture. No major active hemorrhage was found. Alastair remained for several days of observation and recovered without surgery or transfusion.

Siobhan Hargreaves

Siobhan stayed for most of Alastair’s admission. She translated his BSL, advocated during care, answered questions during the social-services review, and read messages sent by Harvard students, Oxford alumni, and theatre contacts.

Notable Events

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