Dr. Dorothy Ley 1925 - 1994
Dr. Dorothy Ley, a physician whose career was spent caring for the needs of the elderly, the cancer-sticken and the dying, died on Jan. 31, 1994, at the age of 69. A leader in the development of palliative care practices, she asked to spend her last days at home in Beaverton, Ont., instead of in hospital.
Dorothy Ley graduated in medicine form the University of Toronto in 1948. Afterwards, she trained in hematology at the University of Washington, in St. Louis, and later joined the staff of Toronto Western Hospital. Dr. Ley was assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Ley was a leader in the establishemnt of hospices for the terminally ill. In 1981, she founded the Palliative Care Foundation. She chaired the Canadian Medical Association's Committee on the Health Care of the Elderly. In 1988 she became the first woman to receive the CMA's Medal of Service, which marked her "major contribution to her profession and to the people of Canada." She was a founding board member of Casey House, a Toronto hospice, and she was honorary chairwoman of the Doroty Ley Hospice in Etobicoke, Ont., at the time of her death. "Dorothy Ley embodied all the ideals of an ethical, humanitarian physician," said Dr. Bruce Squires, CMA's Editor-in-chief. "Her faith and her principles gave her a tremendous amount of energy, and she used that energy to move in many different directions, including palliative care and care for the elderly."
~Excerpted from Humane Medicine Health Care~