Early Doctors and Hospitals of the Ozarks

By Michael Duff

Let''s take a road trip through the Ozarks and see some early hospitals and meet the Doctors treating appendicitis and other diseases. As we drive down Hwy 66 we pass a large Red Cross near St. James that is on Dr. EA Scott''s hospital, going on to Rolla we see Dr. McFarland''s Rolla Hospital, Dr. Ida Bengston''s Trachoma Hospital, the Missouri School of Mines Infirmary and the Engineering students who built an Iron Lung during a polio epidemic. Driving to Waynesville we pass Dr. DeWitt''s modern hospital built above Roubidoux Spring. As we go on to Lebanon we see the Louise G Wallace Hospital. On to Springfield there is Dr. Wetzel''s Ozark Osteopathic Hospital and the Army''s O''Reilly General Hospital. Driving to Mountain Grove we see Dr. RA Ryan''s five bed hospital. Going south to Pomona we meet Dr Cox and the Pomona Hospital. As we enter West Plains we encounter Dr. RE Hogan and the Christa Hogan Hospital, Dr. John Stoll with the Stoll Surgical Hospital, Dr. Cox and the Cottage Hospital,and Dr. Thompson and the West Plains Hospital. Going to Salem, Missouri we meet Dr. Martin Hart and the Hart Hospital. From Salem we drive to the Current River and visit Dr. CH Diehl''s Welch Spring Cave Asthma Sinus Hospital, from there to the West Eminence Hospital and Dr. Parker. Driving to Texas County we see the Bates-Roby-Geers House, a Civil War Hospital and in Plato we view the Dr. Charles Wetzel Hospital. In Houston we meet Shorty Evans and his funeral home/ambulance empire and Dr. Rosy flying the first aerovac in the Ozarks. We meet heroic Dr Briggs of Roby, Dr Haggard of Raymondville and the dentist Dr. Noah Johnston, all of whom died of Influenza in 1918 while treating patients. We greet saddle bag doctors such as Dr TD Gordon of Cedar Grove and Dora who used the Elliott apothecary saddlebags to store his medicines, made in St. Louis by the AA Mellier Drug Company. Other saddlebag doctors were Dr. Coats of Simmons and Cabool, Dr. Womack of Plato and Houston. We meet Dr. BF Craven an eye specialist from Licking fighting the trachoma epidemic in the Ozarks and Dr. Fred Loe, a Missouri doctor, who discovered the cure for Trachoma on a Sioux Reservation. In Bucyrus and Success we visit with Dr. Pittman and Dr. Sillyman who treated skin cancer with a secret ointment. In Summersville we meet Dr. Hampton who delivered 2000 babies, and Dr. Wallen, whose son died of tetanus. We learn of the childrens'' tetanus epidemic in St. Louis after the fourth of July. We meet Dr. Edens from Cabool and Dr. Randall from Licking who brought the first X-ray equipment to Texas County. Along the Big Piney River are born the Lynch brothers one of which, William H. Lynch became a pioneer educator in the Ozarks, setting up academies in Steelville, Salem, West Plains, and Mountain Grove. Gertrude Mires Massey, a young lady from Houston and Mountain Grove, goes to Barnes Medical College in 1906 and fights off a robber. We meet Dr. AC Bernays and Dr. JT Hodgen, early professors of surgery in St. Louis, Dr. Bernays introduces the aseptic-antiseptic technique to the area. What trends did we see in medical care and education? We noted the transition from funeral home ambulance services to hospital based services and advanced air transport of critical patients, the granting of hospital privileges to the osteopathic physicians, the transition of medical school from two years to four years, the shortage of rural physicians and the closure of rural hospitals, a trend that the University of Missouri Medical School is working to alleviate, and the ER staffing changes in rural hospitals. We learn of the origin of the crash cart, the development of the pulse oximeter and use of mixed venous oxygen analysis in the resuscitation of major blunt trauma. The No Surprise Rule is introduced. We meet Dr. Phil Carr, the Ozarks'' first coronary angiographer at St. John''s Hospital in Springfield in 1970. Dr. Glenn Turner gives a warning to Ozarkians.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0D8TYXJ72
• ISBN13: 9798323276943
• Release Date: June 2024
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.5"