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Early Medical
Services Prior to 1924, medical services were rendered by doctors who arrived at the scene of accident or illness by the most convenient means of rapid transportation, e.g. horseback, buggy, or automobile, depending upon the time frame of the doctor's practice. If the doctor rode a horse, he carried his surgical instruments and medicines in saddlebags strapped on each side of the mount. During the winter and spring floods, this sometimes involved swimming his horse or walking across a foot log to the final destination. Automobiles were not the final answer to transportation because in rainy spells the car could very easily become stuck in the mud of the early country roads. During rainstorms or in fording a stream the early automobile engines would drown out and cease to run. More bridges and better cars helped to solve the problem, but the doctor's arrival time was uncertain. Prior to the telephone service, especially on distant calls in the country, the doctor was often summoned by fast rider to the doctor's door. This might happen at any hour of the day or night. The telephone did two things to help this situation: first, the less urgent calls were made to the doctor's office and, second, a phone call in an emergency assured prompter attention than had theretofore been available. According to the Sesqui-Centenial Edition of the Shelbyville Times Gazette, pages 132 & 212, in 1922 Dr. T. R. Ray, a member o the newly organized Rotary Club, and W. J. McGill who belonged to the equally newly organized Lions Club, were discussing possible projects for the new clubs to undertake. They came up with the idea of a combined effort by the two clubs to build a hospital for the people of Bedford County. It was a bold venture. It was, indeed, a bold venture in view of the proposed method of financing the project. This method was in the sale of stock certificates which would never pay dividends and which were valued at $100 per share. It is improbable that the method could be used today, but at that time it meant the birth of the Bedford County Hospital. The Lions voted to take on the project and issued a challenge to the Rotarians to join them in the solicitations of funds from the people of Bedford County. The club receiving the least amount of money from their campaign would, it was agreed, treat the winning club to a banquet. The Rotarians accepted the challenge, and the members of both clubs began to cover the entire county, seeking contributions. Each contributor was given a stock certificate representing the amount of his subscription, and those who had given less were issued fractional shares. The stock could never be sold; it was non-transferable until after death. History does not say which club entertained which at the banquet - it would depend upon whether you listen to a Lion or a Rotarian, but in this case, everybody won. The money raised was used to buy the Old Sandusky Home, now located at 309 Madison Street, from Clarence Snell. It was converted into a 25 bed hospital which was opened for service April 7, 1924. Later a West wing was added, boosting the patient capacity to 40 beds. Dr. Ray said, "We had a few bad times and a lot of good times at the Old Hospital. Some wonderful work was done there. She served us well." The Old Hospital, as it was called, yielded to progress twenty-eight years after it had opened. Construction of a new 60 bed facility was begun April 7, 1950 and was completed and opened for patients May 21, 1952. Prior to the Bedford County Hospital, the local surgeons did their work on improvised tables, often a drop-leaf kitchen table, with any light available at the time. I recall one doctor saying that he did an operation by using the headlights of his car and reflecting the light into the operating site from a mirror held by a friend Anesthetic was administered by the doctor, or even a friend of the family, by dropping chloroform or ether on a mask held over the patients' nose. Under such circumstances, the doctor was not only concerned with the operating procedure, but with the patient's vital signs - the breathing and adequate heart beat. Many a person was saved from death by such crude procedures. So often in the 1920's and 1930's, and even in later years, may have had all the home remedies tried before the doctor was called. This included purgatives and hot towels thus delaying the infection and leading to a ruptured appendix. Before the days of penicillin, intravenous medication, and other antibiotics, a ruptured appendix carried a very high mortality risk. Before the availability of the local hospital, all babies were delivered in the home, but in cases of extreme complications a patient may have been transferred. Usually, the husband would engage his doctor after he was sure that his wife was "in a family way", the service to be performed "when the time came". Often the patient was never seen by the doctor until she started into labor. When the doctor arrived, he seldom left the house until the baby was delivered. He was fed and entertained persuaded to drink much coffee. Almost every doctor remembers his first O.B. case, particularly if it was a home delivery and represented his endeavor to bridge the gap between primative conditions and the best available medical procedures. To illustrate, I remember that I was phoned one bitter cold night in December, 1938, with instructions to meet the husband at a certain cross-roads in the back country. I was to follow him to his home and there take care of his wife, who was in labor with their first born. I followed him along a dirt road for quite some distance before we reached his house. He had a good fire in the fireplace, but the house was old fashioned and had high ceilings. I remember well how I could see my breath in the far end of the room, where the patient lay a-bed under several blankets and quilts. From the high pitched groans and the frequency thereof, I judged that she was in earnest. We said "hello" for the first time and she immediately asked if she could get up to the chamber and I said "sure!" The next thing I heard was a loud thud in the chamber. I rushed back to the patient and delivered a bouncing baby boy! I was warming my hands and preparing to go home when, suddenly, more groans came from the cold end of the room. Upon reexamination, Lo and behold! there was another! Since the first one delivered so easy, I figured that the second would be the same way. It wasn't that way at all. The mother stayed in labor until after daylight and still wouldn't deliver. I drove home - a distance of 12 miles - and got my wife, an R.N., to help me give the anesthetic. I draped the patient and under as near aseptic conditions as I could do, did a version and delivery. After suction, mouth-to-mouth resusitation, and administration of oxygen, we got the baby to breathing. The twins lived for me to deliver their children. This case was a classic example of a mix of primative and modern techniques in home deliveries. My standard fee for home deliveries at that time was $25. Customs change slowly. It was a long time before hospital deliveries outnumbered those made in the home. Tonsillectomies was another nightmare for the doctors of this era. It was before the day of the antibiotic and the complications from tonsilor absess were bad. This was one reason so many were done. Before my military service, 1941-1946, I did this operation in my office. *Bleeding was the dreaded complication. Even in the hospital, the doctor gave his own transfusions after typing and cross matching the blood sample himself. There were no laboratory technicians at the hospital until about 1950. The charge for a stay in the hospital during the 1932's was $6 per day for the best private room and $2.50 a day for ward Beds. The charge for the operating room was about $25 extra. Mrs. Grace McMillian was the Administrator of the Bedford County Hospital during the entire period of its service, 1924-1952. She ran the hospital under the direction of Mr. William P. Cooper and the other Hospital Board members. Mrs. McMillian did all the book and paper work necessary to conduct the affairs of the institution, by herself, and with the help of one part-time secretary. There were very few insurance forms to fill out during this era. I visited Mrs. Annie M. Arnold, R.N., recently and she furnished me with the names of the nurses she remembered. She came to the Bedford County Hospital in 1927, immediately after she had completed her training at the old Protestant Hospital, now the Mid State Baptist, in Nashville. She continued to work at the local hospital until it closed in 1952, thus becoming probably the oldest Registered Nurse on the hospital staff, in terms of years of service. The Registered Nurses were given the most responsible positions in the hospital, more often in the operating room. They received $100 per month for many years, but just before the Old Hospital closed they were earning $125. The L.P.N., after registration by the state, earned less than the R.N., but in proportion to their experience and ability. The Nurses' Aids made even less. I know of no group of people who rendered so much service for so little, than these Nurses - and most of the doctors fell into this group too. During the Old Hospital days, it was a custom to secure the services of a private nurse if the patient was extremely sick, and if one could afford to pay $u for 8-12 hours service. The family of the ill or injured felt a great deal of relief to get a good private nurse to take care of their loved one, and I feel that most of the R.N.s preferred this duty to general duty in the hospital.
Mrs. Annie Arnold supplied the
following list of nurses who worked in the Old Hospital, alive
and deceased, as shown:
Deceased:
There were three cooks whom we remember best, probably because they worked more years and that they were gifted in the preparation of delicious food. They were Eva Sims, Polly Jones, and Georgia Ray. In order to practice medicine in the hospital, it was required that the doctor be a member of both the state and local medical societies. This assured the proper and adequate professional qualifications. A list of physicians and surgeons who practiced in the Old Hospital is given below, taken from those names published in the minutes of the Bedford County Medical Society, 1929-62.
There were other names in these MINUTES, which are on file in the local Argie Cooper Library and the Tennessee State Library in Nashville. The above list is believed to be those who practiced in the first Bedford County Hospital, even though the doctor may have lived in an adjacent county.
Listed in the First Edition, American
Medical Directory, published by the American Medical Association
in 1906 are the following doctors then practicing in Bedford
County, Tennessee: Some of these doctors probably lived to practice in the first Bedford County Hospital, opened in 1924. The doctors who practiced in the first hospital of Bedford County will always remember the 25 K.V.P. portable X-Ray machine and the questionable pictures produced by each doctor taking them. Also, he or she will remember unto death the three #300 watt light source above the operating table. The heat from these lamps was particularly unbearable during July, August and September. There was no air-conditioning beyond one or two fans on the floor which created more noise than they cooled. How a partially anesthesized patient could just about leave the scene before the incision! The laboratory was beginning to appear just before the doors of the Old Hospital were closed in 1954. I can't remember the name of the technician except one who rendered especially excellent services to so many doctors. He was Ira Grooms. In closing, I hope the skill and human concern of doctors and nurses will always be available in Bedford County as elsewhere.
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