First Patient Grant Hunsaker (1965)

Grant K. Hunsaker, age 6, was the first acute care admission to the University of Utah Medical Center, Saturday, July 10, 1965. The center of attention opening day, Grant was transported in a Salt Lake County Fire Department ambulance. Grant was presented with a "gaily wrapped" blue Tonka toy truck and framed certificate attesting to being the "First Patient to be Admitted to the New Medical Center: May Your Stay be Pleasant and Your Recovery Complete - We Bid You Welcome." . Pictured left-to-right: Governor Calvin L. Rampton, Dr Kenneth B. Castleton, Dean of the College of Medicine, Grant's mother, Frances, and Hospital Administrator, Vernon L. Harris. In all, over the course of four hours, 93 patients (80 adults, 13 children) were transferred that morning by a relay of ambulances from the Salt Lake County General Hospital to the new medical center.