Page TEN
THE PILOT—Southern Pin.es. North Carolina
THURSDAY. JULY 12. 1958
THE HERITAGE OF SIMPLE BEGINNING
Hospitals Combine Technologyy Human Values
Dr. W. M. Peek, former
Bssociale superintendent and
medical director of the North
Carolina Sanatorium at near
by McCain, left recently for
Raleigh to assume a position
with die Siiite Department of
Public Health. He had resign
ed from the State hosintal
post effective the first of this
month. In,an article publish
ed last year. Dr, Peck com
mented on the past and pres
ent treatnient of tuberculo
sis, revealing interesting in
formation about the early
operation of the hospital at
McCain and paying tribute to
the pioneer patients and
physicians there. nearly a
half century ago. At this
turning point in Dr. Peck's
career and in view of his
wide acquaintance in the
SandhoUs, the article is of
special interest at this time:
The last of the great private
sanatoria has closed and the bur
den of controlling tuberculosis
now rests on tax-supported insti
tutions. Those great private insti
tutions, for which the word “san
atorium” was originally coined,
were constructd about the turn of
the century, flourished brightly
as piirveyors of climate and hope
and leadership; and then slowly
declined in importance as in
creasing intricacy and expense of
treatment outpaced their re
sources as well as the resources
of their patients impoverished by
disease.
Somehow the magic of distant,
inaccessible places began to fail
and so did tjie idea of health
seeking at spas or sanatoria based
on the spa principle. Thus the
closing of 'Trudeau Sanatorium—
just as the closing of private
Asheville sanatoria 15 years or so
ago—^points up the reality of
modem therapy: an effective san
atorium today must be a complex
and highly organized chest hospi
tal, with special emphasis on lab
oratory, X-ray, surgical and con
sultation services; treatment has
become rational, scientific and
demanding, and though it has lost
some of its pastoral charm and
quaintness, it has gained tremen
dously in achievement.
It is this evolutionary process,
this moulding from spa to chest
hospital, which gives meaning
and justification to the expan
sion program of our own State
Sanatorium System, and through
the years the innovations which
acclerated this process have be
come the important historical
markers.
Much of the drama and ex
citement came in the early years
when hope and courage, just as
the mortality rate, were bound
less; so let us reflect on the
manner of our own spa-like
spawning.
Primitive Affair
Our first State aSnatorium
came into being in 1908 as a poor
man’s spa. Built on a sandhill in
deforested wasteland of broom-
sage and huckleberry, this first
Sanatorium was a primitive
wooden affair. Patients slept on
open porches exposed to the
weather, and the central meeting
rooms were heated only by fire
places.
Even so, the facilities for prop
er treatment, as then visualized,
were all present: fresh country
air was unlimited, food was good
and there were miles of space for
exercise. Among the Nation’s
public sanatoria this must have
rated high although in retrospect
it seems^ little more than a brave
new idea in a shanty.
There were familiar sights and
sounds and emotions that former
patients recall fondly and with
amusement: the smell of the
smoking oil lanterns that nurses
carried along the windy porches,
the thud of hotwater jugs—pigs
they were called—falling out of
bed, the rush of nurses to cover
patients with storm sheets, but
above all a wonderful feeling of
oneness and hope in this brave
little group fighting an unequal
Ifight in a God-forsaken waste
land. Old correspondence in oim
files, falling apart with age,
sounds strange and musty—^Dr.
Brooks begging an overcoat for a
patient so he can get away from
the fireplace and tramp the sand
trails. . . a neighbor* trying to
prevent patients fromi approach
ing his property beyond a certain
oak tree.
Patients Older Now
Even the meagre statistical
data that has survived yields
something of human interest. We
have rviewed the first 216 records
remaining in our files of patients
who were admitted during 1911>
1912 and 1913. The average age of
those patients was 27 years,
whereas the average age of our
present patient population is 45,
thus illustrating the strangely
perverse epidemiological phen
omenon of tuberculosis retreat
ing iiito older age groups. The I
average stay in the hospital of
these early patients was two
months, whereas the present ave
rage stay is a little over a year.
The mortalitv rate can only be
estimated since our State Bureau
of Vital Statistics was just begin
ning to operate at this period.
From these original 216 patients
the Bureau of Vital Statistics has
identified 80 of them as having
died from tuberculosis; however,
the names of many patients sent
home to die have not yet been lo
cated so it is probable that about
two-thirds of these patients may
have succumbed to their disease.
Such a high death rate should
cause little wonder, since the fun
damental concepts of treatment
at that time—forced feeding, ex
posure to the weather and exer
cise—^have all proved unsound if
not actually harmful. 'The tri
umphs of these early sanatoria
were clearly in the realm of the
human spirit rather than in the
realm of medical science and it
seems much fairer to gauge their
success not in the actual number
of survivors but rather in the
subsequent contributions those
survivors made.
A number of prominent and
useful citizens of our State are
^x-patients from* these early
years; specifically one may men
tion Mr. Wiley Rutledge, alumnus
Of 1917, who survived to become
Justice of the Supreme Corut of
the United States.
Crusading Spirit
Then came decades of growth,
expansion, new vision and new
wisdom. Names, important names
—^Brooks, McBrayer, McCain,
Willis—changed but the essential
impulse toward a system of chest
hospitals continued. Progress was
slow, painfully slow when await
ing a new technical development
or a new concept that would per
mit the next step, but almost al
ways the progression was in the
right direction, and always there
was a crusading spirit pushing it
along and giving it polarity;
New State Sanatoria, modern
in facilities and skills, were es
tablished at Black Mountain, Wil
son and Chapel Hill, and the pa
rent institution at McCain was
completely renovated. Thus at
the point of extinction of the pri
vate sanatoria we finc^in our
State Sanatoria a striking reaf
firmation of guiding principles:
a system of chest hospitals in
which the newest technology and
scientific principles are combined
with those old ideas of compas
sion and human vafies, our heri
tage from a simple beginning.
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