What is the Mayo Clinic? World-leading not-for-profit hospital set up by an Englishman in the 1880s

Scottish Pop Idol star Darius Campbell Danesh was found dead in an apartment block with ties to the Mayo Clinic hospital, MailOnline revealed today.

It is unclear if he was being treated at the world-famous US medical facility and the circumstances of his death have still not been made public.

The 41-year-old’s passing was announced by his family yesterday, five days after he was discovered unresponsive in his bed in Rochester on August 11.

But patients who visit the Mayo Clinic’s Minnesota mega-site often stay at The Berkman apartment where the late star was discovered.

The two-year-old building situated across seven floors that is billed as Rochester’s ‘premier address for elegant short term and long-term furnished suites and residential living’. 

The Mayo Clinic is widely considered the best hospital in the US and consistently ranks among the top five medical facilities in the world.

The hospital is a not-for-profit, meaning the $15.7billion (£13billion) it rakes in per a year is invested back into cutting-edge research and services.

It attracts the best doctors in the world, who treat complex, rare and undiagnosed medical conditions, as well as providing routine care.

The clinic describes and itself as ‘where architecture, art and nature contribute to the healing experience’. Its diabetes, stomach and intestine, lung and urology departments are the best in the country.

But it diagnoses and treats virtually all medical specialties and has become the go-to for the rich and famous. The Dalai Lama, Muhammad Ali and former US Presidents Ronal Reagan and George H. W. Bush have all turned to Mayo Clinic for care.

Mayo Clinic is now America’s best hospital describes and itself as ‘where architecture, art and nature contribute to the healing experience’. Pictured: Saint May’s Hospital, part of Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota

Pop Idol star Darius Campbell Danesh, pictured in May 2018 at The Ivy Chelsea Garden Annual Summer Party in London

Its Rochester headquarters boasts a 1,265-bed and 70-operating room complex.

But the clinic has two other campuses in Florida and Arizona, as well as dozens of smaller sites across the country.

The hospital is a not-for-profit, meaning the $15.7billion (£13billion) it rakes in per a year is invested back into cutting-edge research and services. 

The clinic’s research arm discovered widely used steroid drug cortisone and developed treatments for diabetes and tests for dangerous poison anthrax.

It was founded in the 1880s by English doctor William Worrall Mayo, originally from Manchester, who moved to Rochester in the 1860s.

Patients have access to hospital rental apartments, as well as hospitality houses just a few blocks from the hospital which are surrounded by green spaces.

Its medics see more than one million people from 130 countries every year. 

Additionally, Mayo Clinic has campuses in Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin, as well as in Westminster, London and Abu Dhabi. 

Dr William Mayo moved his family from Eccles, in Manchester, to Rochester in 1864 and opened his practice.

An example of a room at The Berkman apartments – a building in Rochester, Minnesota, where Darius was found dead 

The Berkman, seen last night, is billed as Rochester’s ‘premier address for elegant short term and long-term furnished suites’

The Berkman, pictured last night, is an apartment block in the Minnesota city of Rochester

His two medically trained sons — Dr William and Charles Mayo — joined his team in the 1880s.

After demand increased in the area, they opened Saint Mary’s Hospital in 1889 with just seven beds and recruited other doctors, nurses and researchers to perform surgery and work in its laboratories.

The medics opened a new building, the first to be officially named Mayo Clinic, in 1914 to expand their teamwork approach to medicine. 

Dr William Mayo died in 1911, while his sons died in the 1930s. 

But to ensure the longevity of the Mayo clinic, the family donated their savings and assets from their private practice — worth $10million (£8.3million) at the time — to the clinic and turned it into a not-for-profit organisation.

Its early successes include establishing the grading system for cancer tumours (1920).

After the founding members’ deaths, the clinic’s team went on to win the Nobel Prize for discovering cortisone — a steroid used to treat inflammation, such as joint pain, arthritis and inflammatory bowl disease.

Mayo Clinic medics also performed the first successful open-heart operations in the world (1955), opened one of the first intensive care units in the US and performed the first total hip replacement in the US (1969). The hospital also introduced the CT scanner to the US.

It now has around 60,000 employees, treats 1.3million patients every year and generates $9.8billion per year — all of which is re-invested. 

Pictured: the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine building in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2005

Pictured: Jacksonville, Florida campus of Mayo Clinic in 2020

Dr William Worrall Mayo (centre) moved his family from Eccles, in Manchester, to Rochester in 1864 and opened his practice. His sons, Dr Charles Horace Mayo (left) and Dr William James Mayo (right), joined him in practice after finishing medical school in the 1880s

Amid increasing patient demand in Rochester, the family opened Saint Mary’s Hospital in 1889 with just seven beds. They recruited other doctors, nurses and researchers to perform surgery and work in its laboratories. Pictured: Dr William James Mayo

Dr William Mayo died in 1911, while his sons (pictured) died in the 1930s. But to ensure the longevity of the Mayo clinic, the family donated their savings and assets from their private practice — worth $10million (£8.3million) at the time — to the clinic and turned it into a not-for-profit organisation

Pictured: Mayo Clinic in in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2015

Pictured: Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona in June 2020

Mayo Clinic is one of the largest recipients of Government funding, which is given through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support its research.

Famous faces have turned to the hospital for tests and surgery.

Muhammad Ali, the best heavyweight boxer of all time, went to Mayo Clinic in Rochester for pre-fight check-ups in the 1980s.

Johnny Cash was admitted to the hospital for four days in 1981 for bleeding ulcers treatment.

Former US President Ronal Reagan underwent surgery at the hospital in 1989, to treat a build up of fluid in his skull after he was thrown from a horse.

Previous President George H. W. Bush underwent tests at Mayo Clinic Rochester in 2015, while both he and his wife received hip replacements there. 

And the Dalai Lama was known to frequent for annual check-ups. 

Rich patients at the Rochester hospital tend to stay in the five-star Kahler Grand Hotel, which has an indoor pool, hot tub and sauna, three restaurants and bars and a gym.

But the hospital also offers rental properties exclusively to patients. 

And the Berkman, apartments just opposite the 1,265-bed St Mary’s Hospital, are also popular among patients.

Mayo Clinic Laboratories now processes thousands of monkeypox tests a week amid the US outbreak of the disease, which has resulted in more than 12,500 confirmed infections since May.