page_title: Adventist University of the Plata
section_title: Sanatorium of the Plata
hierarchical_section_title: Adventist University of the Plata / History / Sanatorium of the Plata
caption_attribution_description: English: R. H. Habenicht founder of River Plate Sanitarium, 1908
context_page_description: Adventist University of the Plata in Spanish: Universidad Adventista del Plata is a private Christian coeducational university in Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos, Argentina, founded in 1898.
  The University began as a small rural training school which later became known as Colegio Adventista del Plata. After being given official recognition by CoNEAU in the 1990s and the signing of a decree by President Eduardo Duhalde in 2002, it became the Universidad Adventista del Plata. In 1994, its medical school was founded.
  The Adventist University of the Plata is part of the Seventh-day Adventist education system, the world's second largest Christian school system. Academic activities take place on a campus covering 18 hectares. It operates mainly from March to December, with post-doctoral theology courses offered during January–February of each year.
  The facilities include laboratories, classrooms, multimedia services and conference rooms that are used both for classes and in the summer courses. The University has a large library that includes more than 60,000 volumes, Internet access and a special library with magazines.
context_section_description: The close proximity of the Sanatorium of the Plata to the School has benefited the development of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in South America. Graduates from the Sanatorium's nursing program have served all of South America.
  Early Adventists referred to their health activities as Medical Missionary Work. This work began in South America when Ole Oppegard, a nurse trained in Battle Creek Sanatorium, arrived in Argentina as a self-supporting missionary and began preaching the health message with the gospel in 1895.
  Dr. Robert Habenicht, the first Adventist doctor to serve in South America, arrived in 1901. He began seeing patients in the neighbourhood of the School. A great share of his time was spent travelling in the horse-drawn carts of the Russian immigrant farmers whose homes were far out in the country in the province of Entre Rios.
  Soon the patients began arriving at his house in search of competent medical help. Many times Dr. Habenicht had to perform operations on his kitchen table in order to save the life of a patient. After the surgery, he would put them in the beds of his own children, who then had to sleep on the floor.
  Dr. Habenicht founded the Sanatorium of the Plata in 1908, with accommodations for six inpatients. This was the beginning of the first Adventist medical institution in South America.
  Over the years, the sanatorium's fame increased greatly, in part as a result of the efficiency and dedication of missionary doctors Habenicht, Westphal, and Hammerly. Patients then came from far and near, giving foot to the enlarging of the facilities and the addition of young doctors, graduated from universities in South America, and nurses, graduated from the School of the Plata nursing program.
caption: R. H. Habenicht, Founder of Sanatorium of the Plata, 1908
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