October 8, 1999

On Monday, the MGH discharged its oldest patient – a 2,500-year-old mummy named Padihershef who resides in the Ether Dome. The 6th-century mummy and his colorful burial coffin were carefully packed in special material and transported to Boston's Museum of Science, where they will be featured in the upcoming exhibit "Virtual Egypt."

Padihershef and his two coffins – an outer coffin is on display at the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum in Springfield, Mass. – are believed to have been the first complete burial ensemble sent to the United States from Egypt. Padi – as he is affectionately called by MGHers – was sent to the hospital in 1823 as a gift from Dutch merchant Jacob Van Lennep.

Once Padi arrived at the MGH, he underwent a thorough examination by John C. Warren, MD, one of the founding fathers of the hospital. Later that year, Padi was released from the hospital and took a tour of the United States, raising approximately $1,500 for the MGH. He later received further check-ups – the most recent one in 1976, when it was determined that Padi was a male who died in his late 40s of unknown causes.

In the early 1980s, the hieroglyphics on Padi's coffin were finally deciphered to reveal his name, which means "gift of the god Hershef." It is believed that he was an unmarried stone cutter from the famous City of the Dead in Thebes. Because tomb robbers had no interest in the graves of common citizens, Padi's mummified remains have stayed intact.

Padi once lived in the company of kings, but he has spent much of the past 175 years standing guard in the Ether Dome, silently watching medical history unfold. He attended the first public demonstration of ether used as anesthesia during surgery in 1846 and has been present for many talks about medical breakthroughs given by renowned physicians from the MGH and around the world.

Padi is expected to return home to the MGH sometime in the early spring.