The Hospital Steward A Western Medical Fiction Circa 1930-1950 Romance and Entrepreneur

The Story……. When the next generation of doctors arrived in the early 30s, they spent a few years getting settled in-getting to know the patients, the hospital, the other doctors, and spent time demonstrating their abilities and reliability. Then the polio epidemic was upon them. Fortunately the two lady doctors had volunteered in the Dallas Polio Center with emphasis on the breathing room where polio victims could not maintain their breathing because of paralyzed intercostal and diaphragm muscles. To the rescue, ‘The Iron Lung.’ The time spent explaining what polio was and what it did to the human body was enlightening. More than that, explaining how the ‘iron lung’ worked was revealing for this was a miracle treatment of an otherwise fatal and inhumane disease-no one should die of suffocation. The remainder of the story deals with differing methods the hospital administrators devised to guarantee the hospital’s survival. That included being certified as a regional medical center, adding several new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, and becoming an official medical school outlying training center. In summary, the way medicine evolved and dealt with an incredible epidemic was in itself rewarding. However, how the characters changed throughout the fifty years is well presented to make this story ‘a keeper.’