Heimlich Hospital is the main setting in The Hostile Hospital and served as the Baudelaire orphans' temporary home while they were on-the-run as criminals. It is located in the Hinterlands, the middle of nowhere, as opposed to a logical place like in the City.
Due to the nature of the series, the hospital naturally plays on real fears such as inadequate healthcare and medical malpractice. The hospital is known to suffer from budget costs.[1] [2] It does not help that the series is also set in a time period where people lack common sense and medicine is extremely experimental; for example, people think that chopping off someone's head can cure their mental health.
One half of the building was finished and the other remained an unfinished frame. It is unknown if this is simply because the hospital is in development, or if those constructing it ran out of funds. The hospital is also ridiculously unorganized, as seen by the strange names of the wards.
Structure
The Finished Half
The finished half of Heimlich Hospital was a beautiful building and was where all of the work was done at the Hospital. It contains everything a normal hospital has.
Supply Closet
The supply closets contain alphabet soup, rubber bands, doctors' coats, as well as a sink. In The Hostile Hospital, Klaus and Sunny hide in one of the closets and use the lab coats to disguise themselves as doctors. Later, the Baudelaire siblings hide in another supply closet from the person who looks like neither a man or a woman while the fire rages through the hospital.
Wards
A hallway showing some wards.
- Plague Ward
- Pee in a Cup Ward (seen in TV series)
- Sore Throat Ward
- Broken Neck Ward
- Ward for People with Nasty Rashes
- Pneumonia Ward
- Surgical Ward
- Ear Ward
- Stubbed Toe Ward
- Accidentally Swallowed Something You Shouldn't Have Ward
- Deadly Snake Bites (seen in TV series)
- Maternity (seen in TV series)
The Unfinished Half
The Unfinished Half of Heimlich Hospital is nothing more than a wooden frame. During the events of The Hostile Hospital, the Baudelaire children slept in this part of the hospital.
Library of Records
The Library of Records in the TV series.
- Main article: Library of Records
The Library of Records was located in the basement, housing information from all over the area. The library had two rooms, with a small antechamber with a bowl of fruit preceding the large filing room, which itself was filled with rows of locked filing cabinets. The ceiling was low and each aisle of cabinets was only big enough to walk single file. Records were deposited through a chute into the room and then filed away by the recordkeeper, Hal.
The library was set on fire by Esmé Squalor and Count Olaf. The fire then proceeded to spread to the rest of the hospital, eventually burning the entire building to the ground. Afterward, Dewey Denouement's partner (Kit Snicket) went to gather the remnants of the records for the Hotel Denouement and discovered Hal, bringing him back to the Hotel.
Connection to V.F.D.?
While it was never stated in the The Hostile Hospital, in Lemony Snicket's autobiography, Kit Snicket mentions that both the Library of Records and Dr. Montgomery's house were secured places that contained information. This could mean that the hospital was originally founded by V.F.D., but they had left it half-finished; or a volunteer owned the hospital and added the library. Another possibility is that a volunteer could be hiding something in the hospital and didn't want anyone to come looking for it so they put it where most people would not think to look.
In the TV series, the Sugar Bowl was found there and later retrieved.
The Baudelaires discovered 1 page of the Snicket File here.
Known employees
- Babs - Head of Human Resources (possibly killed by Count Olaf)
- Hal - Record Keeper
- Volunteers Fighting Disease
Known patients
Mentioned in the book:
- Emma Bovary (patient with food poisoning)
- Jonah Mapple (patient with seasickness)
- Clarissa Dalloway (patient who did not seem to have anything wrong with her but was staring sadly out the window)
- Cynthia Vane (patient with toothache)
- Charley Anderson (patient who injured himself in an accident)
- Bernard Rieux (patient in Plague Ward with a cough)
Mentioned in the TV series:
- Shelia Erdmann
- Caitlin Groves
- John Wilcox
- Cynthia Glass
- Anthony V. Beveldwuge
- Barney N. Dolfners
- Bernard Roovoo
- Buzz Abatania
- Daisi Bellet
- Flo Wino-Graivi
Anagrams of actual people:
- Laura V. Bleediotie (formerly) - Violet Baudelaire
- Carrie E. Abelabudite - Beatrice Baudelaire
- Al Brisnow - Lisa Brown
- Eriq Bluthetts - Brett Helquist
- Lisa N. Lootnday - Alison Donalty
- Linda Rhaldeen - Daniel Handler
- Monty Kensicle - Lemony Snicket
- Ned H. Rirger - Red Herring
- Ruth Dercroump - Rupert Murdoch
Etymology
Heimlich Hospital is a reference to Henry Heimlich, an American physician best known for the Heimlich Maneuver.
Appearances
- The Hostile Hospital
- Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography (Mentioned)
- A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV series)
Gallery
Books
TV series
Sources
- ↑ They frequently need to shut down parts of the building.
- ↑ TV: The Hostile Hospital: Part One