Tree planted to honor Baptist Health’s commitment to medicine

Tree planted at Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery, Monday, June 10, 2024 – Photo from Action 8 News

Workers at Baptist Medical Center South held a tree dedication ceremony to honor their commitment to medicine and to their partnership with UAB.

Planted on the front circular entrance of the UAB Heersink School of Medicine Montgomery Regional Medical Campus is a descendant of the tree Of Hippocrates.

2,400 years ago, Hippocrates, who is considered the father of medicine, taught under a plantanus orientalis (sycamore) tree on the island of Kos in Greece.

The original tree has been lost to history, but its descendent, which is 500 years old, still exists.

Around the world, there have been cuttings of the tree sent to centers of medical teaching. Harvard, Yale, Brown and Cornell all have trees and The University of Alabama at Birmingham has a tree.

“It’s a tremendous honor, you know, we’ve been teaching medicine in Montgomery since the 1970s,” Dr. Lou Lambiase, the regional dean of the Montgomery medical campus, told Action 8 News. “We just graduated her 50th graduating class, the internal medical residency, but to be recognized as a place where we teach medicine in the Baptist and UAB partnership has been going strong since 1971 I believe, and so I think this is really a great commemoration of that.”

The tree planted in Montgomery is a descendent of one that was sent from the University of Florida as a gift.