Survivor Pierette Pierrot, 88, a French resistance fighter captured in 1944, came with her son to the ceremonies.

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The specialty hospital movement got off the ground 20 years ago when Alan Pierrot, an orthopedic surgeon in Fresno, Calif.

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For Deburau, who created the character of Pierrot on the French stage in the 1830s, the white-faced clown became his other self.

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Pierrot's success in Fresno attracted copycats--until the big hospitals started fighting back.

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"Before him, there were pierrot and jesters, " he said.

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Pierrot's idea, that patients sharing the same symptoms might benefit from being away from other kinds of patients and being cared for by staff skilled in one sort of procedure, had precedents.

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