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 and presented with a special plaque and "gaily wrapped" blue Tonka toy truck by the medical center staff. 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.