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"As a regional leader dedicated to children’s health, The Unterberg Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center offers the highest level of pediatric care for newborns to adolescents, including leading edge treatments and specialized expertise that only a comprehensive children’s hospital can provide. Here, you’ll discover a child-friendly, family-focused approach to every aspect of care, and dedication to medical excellence which sets us apart.
In January 2006, Monmouth Medical Center was recognized for its long-demonstrated strength in pediatrics and was licensed by New Jersey as an official children’s hospital for Monmouth and Ocean counties. What few people realize, however, is just how early Monmouth’s commitment to providing comprehensive pediatric care began.
Around 1887, an epidemic struck Long Branch, leaving eight children from poor families sick and in need of care. With no hospital in the area, local businessmen rented four rooms over a Broadway storefront to care for the children - an act that laid the foundation for what is now Monmouth Medical Center.
The first mention of a special area devoted to the care of children appeared in the hospital’s 1904 annual report, and the first mention of a pediatrician highlights Lester D. Wise, M.D., as chief of pediatrics in the 1920 annual report. By 1923, Dr. Wise was joined by Stanley Nichols, M.D., and they are both reported to have worked in the Dispensary Department for the Children’s Clinic.
In 1934, Dr. Nichols became one of the first child specialists in the country to be certified by the newly created American Board of Pediatrics. Under his direction, the elements of the pediatric program were specified by the time the Borden Memorial Pavilion was built in 1940. Dr. Nichols served as chief of pediatrics from 1935 until his death in 1949, at which time the Dr. Stanley Nichols Branch of the hospital auxiliary was formed to support pediatric projects.
As the hospital flourished in the 1940s with an influx of patients and philanthropy, physicians began to treat a new and frightening disease called polio. A summer disease, polio hit the Long Branch area - with its influx of summer visitors - especially hard. Patients, primarily children, occupied the entire pediatrics unit and often numbered close to 100.
It was then that Monmouth gained international renown for its polio treatment, developed under the leadership of Dr. Nicholas Ransohoff from curare, a relaxant drug used in ancient times. The volume of polio patients reached its peak in 1949, with patients traveling to Monmouth from other states and even overseas.
Today, Monmouth continues its pattern of excellence by providing renowned medical expertise that only a leading academic medical center can offer, with 140 pediatric specialists in 26 fields of medicine."
