Five Incredible Truths About St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is located in  Memphis, Tennessee and was founded by the late comedian Danny Thomas. Danny was facing a time of struggle in his career and the way the story goes is that Danny made a promise that if he was ever able to get out of his slump and catch a big break, he would honor St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes. Times turned around for Danny, he caught his big break, and so was born St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. That's right, Danny stuck to his word. There’s actually a bust of Danny in the research center at St. Jude and rumor says if you rub his nose you’ll have good luck.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital isn't just in the business of saving the lives of kids who live here in the United States. St. Jude actually treats kids from around the world, often taking on cases that other medical professionals have deemed "helpless." Nearly 7,500 kids are treated at St. Jude each year.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is known worldwide as being a place where groundbreaking medical research is conducted and where unprecedented care is given to patients and in the  Annual “Best Hospitals” list published in the summers of 2017 and 2018 by U.S. News & World Report, St. Jude was ranked the number one pediatric cancer hospital in the nation. In the summer of 2019, the hospital was ranked second best in the county.

As unbelievable as it might seem, the kids under the care of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and their families are never, ever billed for medical treatments, lodging, travel, or meals. At St. Jude, they believe that kids and their families should focus on getting well and shouldn't be burdened with anything else. St. Jude kids and their families absolutely never have to open their wallets for anything, thanks to the generosity of donors.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital isn't in the business of researching and developing groundbreaking medical treatments and then hoarding those discoveries or making a profit off of them. Quite the opposite, actually, St. Jude freely shares their findings with the medical community so that others might have a fighting chance at survival. In 1996, Peter Doherty, PhD, of the Department of Immunology was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. This award is shared with Rolf M. Zinkernagel, MD, of the University of Zurich and their findings have led to incredible "breakthroughs in the understanding and treatment of viral infections and cancers, and in the development of organ transplant procedures and vaccines."