In
November of 1919 at the age of 30, and six
and a half years after graduation in
Medicine in 1913, I returned to my parents
home in Hamilton, Indiana to help my father,
a country doctor, but primarily to decide
where to locate for a surgical practice.
I had just finished five years of residency
in surgery, interrupted by nearly two years
of active service as a Navy medical officer
during World War I.
married
and with three children and about $1,000
which I had saved from Navy pay and three
years as a Teaching Fellow in Surgery at the
University of Minnesota, I opened an office
in the Medical Arts Building in Fort Wayne.
Sundays
were my really busy days since each Saturday
evening I drove back to Hamilton and made
dates to see patients the next day with
their doctors in Hamilton, Angola, Edon and
Edgerton. I shall always feel deeply
indebted to nearly all the doctors in
Steuben and Williams Counties who very soon
began to send their surgical cases, but in
the early days especially to Doctors Mary
Ritter, W. Waller, O.H. Nihart, A. Hathoway,
E. Brandon, W.K. Nihart, G.E. Emanuel, and
W. Unger.
I soon
bought an autoclave and on these trips
carried in my car a rather complete set of
sterile instruments and emergency equipment.
The dining room with its table divided made
a good operating room. The doctor gave
the ether anesthetic, and stayed with the
patient afterward. I drove on for the
next case, mostly tonsillectomies, but with
a fair number of real emergencies: an
empyema, a "hot" appendix, hernia or
perforate peptic ulcer. By starting at
sunrise we frequently did six to eight cases
by evening using electric flashlights when
needed.
the other
six days of the week in Fort Wayne soon
began to be interrupted by emergency calls
back to Steuben and Williams county homes by
people and doctors who preferred many times
that the work be done at home rather than
make the long and rough trip to the city
hospitals. At this time there were 20
doctors in Steuben County alone and nearly
all very soon began to refer all their
surgical cases. It became very clear
that even a small emergency hospital at
Angola was almost a necessity.
About 1922
at a regular meeting of the Steuben County
Medical Society held in the Court House in
Angola, this situation was a reviewed and I
suggested to them that if they would invest
even as little as $200 to $500 apiece, we
could set up an emergency station with a
small x-ray unit, two or three beds, and a
serviceable operating room. We could
rent the sizable assembly room of the
American Legion over the drug store and be
in business. We would all be partners.
I offered to do the surgery for $500 a month
plus a reasonable increase as the work might
grow. All the doctors were quite
interested and there was a considerable
discussion, but in conclusion no one
volunteered to invest any money. In
justification of this inertia, one must
realize that their average age was perhaps
over 60 years, though all recognized the
need for such a project.
About this
time L.M. Sniff was still active and
President of Tri-State College. One
day out of a clear sky, he telephoned asking
me to see him. When I arrived, he said
in his brisk way "I hear you are thinking of
starting a hospital here. That is
fine! And just what we need!
Don't let anything stop you!" What a
help his strong words of encouragement were
at that critical time! I had admired
his drive and energy since I had been a
student of his 20 years before in his class
in "Algebra B" at the College.
Although I
had saved some money in these few years, I
needed 5,000 more cash to make this very
modest adventure in the hospital business.
I went to my very good father who had sent
me to school those many years and asked him
for a loan of $5,000. He was 70 years
old. He shook his head violently and
warned me I would lose everything I would
put into such an adventure.
This
reminded me of the legend of an ancestral
Cameron clan chief, who after a day of
violent fighting was inspecting the
battlefield and found his own son asleep on
the ground with a stone under his head for a
pillow. The chief kicked the stone
away from under his son's head and remarked:
"Let it never be said that a son of mine was
raised in the lap of luxury."
By 1926 I
had saved $23,000 -- and had a fairly good
surgical practice. So, I made the
plunge alone and purchased the three story
octagon house of Esquire Hendry at 416 East
Maumee, Angola, Indiana. It had no
basement but six fireplaces, no plumbing or
central heat, but all its walls were of
"stone and burnt lime" sit it was relatively
fire-proof. It was modernized as well
as possible and equipped with eight beds and
other essentials. How much better it
would have been if I had followed the advice
of my friend Hermon Phillips, given much
later about one of his renovations! He
said: "I made just one mistake. I
should have exploded six sticks of dynamite
in the place first and started new."
I chose
Miss Ruth Libey, R.N., as the first
Superintendent-- a smart young graduate and
former student of mine at the old Methodist
Hospital School of Nursing in Fort Wayne.
She took on a few girls to help as the need
arose. They all lived and ate in the
hospital and worked at all hours, as was the
custom then. I believe Miss Libey
received $75 to $100 a month plus her home.
On January
7, 1927, on a Sunday as I recall, we had an
"open house" and quite a number of local
residents visited the hospital. In the
middle of the afternoon while visitors were
all over the place, an ambulance from Edon
arrived with a very sick patient -- with
heart failure and toxic goiter -- a patient
of Dr. O.H. Nihart. Miss Libey got her
to bed in a corner room and was her special
nurse for the two hours she lived -- Our
first patient!
The
hospital service increased quite rapidly,
its facilities were open to all licensed
doctors in the territory. Until this
time all babies in this area were born at
home, now this custom changed almost
immediately and the doctors and mothers
insisted on going to the hospital for child
birth. The doctors sent in their
accident and more serious medical cases.
It is true that at this time none of the
other doctors, resident here, had had any
surgical training and all were happy to
refer the surgical cases. I answered
all such calls promptly and with increasing
frequency was making emergency trips, night
and day, to Angola from my home in Fort
Wayne.
By the end
of 1927 it was clear that an addition to the
Angola hospital had to be built promptly.
A three story fireproof concrete and steel
building, 66 feet long and with terrazzo
floors was constructed and opened and paid
for just before the October 1929 major
financial market crash. I was
fortunate in selling securities in time so
that all bills were paid promptly without
borrowing and with no outside assistance.
The major
surgical work was increasing rather rapidly
with many gallbladder, prostate and goiter
operations in addition to the usual run of
hernias, acute appendix and perforated
peptic ulcers, bowel obstructions, ectopic
pregnancies and acute mastoid cases.
It is well
to note here the indebtedness of our people
to medical research which has greatly
reduced the need for surgery. Two
outstanding examples should be noted:
-
The
development of the sulfa and antibiotic
drugs eliminated much of the danger of
pneumonia and other acute infections
leading to tonsillitis and acute mastoid
disease.
-
The
use of small amounts of iodine in salt
has eliminated 90% of goiter formation
which had recently been proved to be, as
a rule, an iodine-deficiency disease.
With due
modesty it should be noted that the opening
of the hospital added much to the diagnostic
ability of the good old-time doctors.
They were welcomed to assist in the
operating room. IN this way many
actually saw for the first time a critically
ill patient cured through surgery by prompt
closure or removal of a perforated stomach
or duodenum, gallbladder, section of
gangrenous bowel, or "hot" appendix --
conditions too often known to have
masqueraded under a common diagnosis of
"acute indigestion". As one man put
it: "These good old-time doctors seldom made
the same mistake twice." IN justice to
all the younger doctors, who have graduated
since the World Wars, it must be made clear,
such defects in education and training are
seldom seen.
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