Isabel Zendal


Isabel Zendal Gómez was a Spanish nurse from Galicia who took part in the Balmis Expedition, which took smallpox vaccination to South America.
She had previously been the supervisor or "rectoress" of an orphanage in A Coruña, and her role on the expedition was to take care of the group of 22, later 26, small orphan boys who carried the virus from which the vaccine was prepared.
The three-year expedition aimed to vaccinate millions of people against smallpox, and had the support of king Charles IV of Spain whose daughter had died of the disease.

Name

Her name has been spelled in some 30 different ways including Isabel Sendales y Gómez, Isabel López Gandalia, Ysabel Gómez Sandalla and Isabel Cendala y Gómez. A street in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain is named Calle Isabel Lopez Gandalia in her honour.

Recognition

In 1950 the World Health Organization recognised her as the first nurse in history to take part in an international mission.
Julia Alvarez's novel Saving the World draws on Zendal's experience on the expedition.