Categories: Articles, Columnists, Harlem, Hazel Rosetta Smith,
Muriel Petioni, M.D., was dubbed the “matron of Harlem health” by every Black woman who was admitted into Harlem hospital. For forty years, Dr. Petioni saw the health needs of underserved patients in the Harlem community, with her belief that a happy patient could soon become a healed patient.
Born in Trinidad on January 1, 1914, to Rose Alling and Charles Augustin Petioni, Muriel was destined to study medicine as a member of a family from which nine members were physicians.
She spent her early childhood years in Trinidad and Tobago before joining her father in Harlem where he had become a prominent physician and was a co-founder of Carver Federal Savings Bank.
Muriel graduated with a B.S. from Howard University in 1934, where she was the only woman in her class and three years later graduated from Howard University Medical School.
After obtaining her MD, she was among the first generation of Black doctors given staff privileges during her internship at Harlem Hospital. She established her practice in her father’s Harlem medical office in 1950.
In 1976, she founded and was the first chair of the Medical Women of the National Medical Association (later changed to the Council of Women’s Concerns of the National Medical Association.)
In addition to her private practice, Dr. Petioni served for thirty years as a school physician in Central Harlem for the City’s Department of Health and supervised physicians for Central and East Harlem from 1980 to 1984.
She created and was the chair of the Friends of Harlem Hospital Center in 1987 to raise funds for medical equipment and supplies for the hospital.
Women’s advancement in medicine was of most importance. She founded the Susan Smith McKinney Steward Medical Society for Women, a professional association for African American women physicians in the Greater New York area. She worked with the Coalition of 100 Black Women, developing mentorship programs to guide young African American women into careers in science and medicine.
Dr. Petioni served on boards of several organizations to improve access to health care and health insurance, that included the faith-based Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, composed of congregations in the Upper Manhattan area and the Community Health Alliance, for which she trained outreach workers to volunteer through the churches to educate the community about poor health prevention and treatment.
She served on the board of directors of the Greater Harlem Nursing Home, the only Black-owned and operated nursing home in Manhattan.
At the age of eighty-eight, Dr. Petioni was still spending every day at Harlem Hospital Center, advocating for patients and as a role model to doctors and nurses, while inspiring others to get involved in the community with health services, educationally, politically, and economically.
Her deep dedication to the underserved in Harlem was honored by the erection of Dr. Muriel Petioni Plaza, an eight-story, 65-unit building at 203 West 146th Street, to accommodate aging-in-place seniors.
Whenever you look up at the amazing mural on the outer wall of Harlem Hospital Center, remember the excellent work and loving spirit of Dr. Muriel Petioni, who died on December 6, 2011.
[Hazel Rosetta Smith is a journalist, playwright, and artistic director of Help Somebody Theatrical Ministries. Contact: misshazel@twc.com and website www.hazelrosettasmith.com]
