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LOOKING BACK
PIONEER REVIEWS LIFE OF HOSPITAL
By Charles Franklin Adams, Major,
M. C., U. S. A.
The Base Hospital at Camp Greene,
North Carolina, was constructed of
wood with overhanging eaves; the
roofs covered with tar paper and fine
large ventilators running through.
The ground was hilly and the build
ings were set on pilings of pine with
the hark on which were braced with
criss-crossed poles, same giving a
good arboreal effect, and allowing per
fect ventilation through the floors to
the ventilators as one or the other
end of the buildings was eight or ten
feet from the ground. It was laid
out in the form of a rectangle and
consisted of four streets, A, B, C, and
D, with eight wards on a street, be
sides four isolation wards, four bar
racks for enlisted men, (orderlies,
etc.), the administration building, offi
cers’ ward and quarters, numerous
warehouses and later three buildings
for the nurses, four large buildings
, for convalescents and a beautiful Red
Cross building.
I arrived in the latter part of Oc
tober, 1917. There were about thirty
medical officers already assigned,
about two hundred patients, eighteen
of whom were chronic ear cases from
the Northwest, waiting for the S. C. D.
Board to take action.
The evenings were already becom
ing cool and the officers would assem
ble back of their quarters, around a
big fire made of tree stumps and waste
wood, there to wile away the time
telling stories and dreaming of their
future usefulness ‘Over There.’ There
were very few who were not longing
to get across to render first aid or be
otherwise useful near the firing line.
We were not busy for two or three
weeks; then the unprecedented cold
weather began to develop and our
beautiful tropical hospital was found
to be misplaced. The carpenters got
busy, and sawed holes in the roofs
for stove pipes, meantime in the most
urgent cases pipes were run through
the windows by removing a pane of
glass and fitting in a piece of tin with
a hole large enough to admit a stove
pipe. Those first stoves were dinky
little things—wood burners. If they
had been larger they would have ap
pealed more to the imagination. After
a while we were provided with small
coal stoves for the wards and finally
two large coal stoves with pipqs that
ran straight through the roof instead
of through the windows.
It was a very cold' -winter. The
buildings were of green lumber, un—
painted, ventilators in the roof wide
open and the walls unsealed until
after the middle of winter. At bed-time
we would take off our shoes, put on
more socks and our bath robes, get
into bed and shiver until morning.
During all of that winter there was
but one officer who became sick
enough to go home and be discharged
on account of illness. Fuel became
scarce so at times the surgeons with
the best scouts in his ward were able
to keep the most comfortable, yet not
withstanding the chilliness of the
wards and operating rooms, the mor
tality was quite as low as in any gen
eral ’nospital that was better heated.
It was uncomfortable rather than un
healthy. It was impossible to keep
pretty records with ones fingers too
numb to hold a pen steady, but not
too cold to make adequate records.
Lieutenant Michel Saliba of Green
ville, North Carolina, after three
months’ training at Camp Greenleaf,
oculist and aurist, was assigned to the
hospital before it was finished and
took up his residence at the Dowd
House in Camp Greene with Captain,
afterwards Lieut.-Col. William L.
Sheep and Captain Way, Lieutenants
Scruggs, and Robinson. Shortly after
wards Captain George A. Renn, an
oculist from Norfolk, Va., arrived. He
was made adjutant and later became
lieutenant-colonel and commanding
officer of the hospital.
The hospital was opened September
17, 1917. In October, Lieutenants J.
C. McConnell, C. W. Banner and C.
F. Adams arrived in rotation as
named. There were in the camp at
that time about 18,000 National Guard
troops from the Northwest.
October 26, 1917, we opened our
first clinic. We had no equipment.
Captain Renn brought with him from
his office in Norfolk a satchel contain
ing a head mirror, ophthalmascope,
tongue depressor, nasal speculum and
condensing lens which were our out
fit for a few weeks. I sent home for
an assortment instruments which
helped somewhat.
The Commanding Officer on Octo
ber 29, 1917, appointed Captain C.
W. Banner, Chief of the Ophthalmo-
Oto-laryngology Clinic by priority of
commission. November 21, 1917, Lieu
tenant Cicero J. Ellen of Greenville,
N. C., arrived from Camp Greenleaf.
In December Captain C. W, Banner
was ordered to Chicago for instruction
in Oral and Plastic Surgery, Lieuten
ant C. P. Adams succeeding him as
Chief of Clinic.
March 25, 1918, the clinic was moved
from Ward C-1 to a new building on
the corner of A Street and the road,
an entire building have been erected
for the use of the Dental Surgeons
and the Opthalmic and Oto-larnyn-
gologists. This was the beginning of
a new era. A good equipment, paint
ed walls, dark rooms operating rooms
and everything that goes to make the
practice of medicine a success and a
pleasure.
THE DISPENSARY BOYS.
Sgt. First Class Del Sesto
Is the foreman of tne gang;
And he is ably assisted
By the well known CpI. Wrang,
Next, comes Pvt. First Class Doherty,
Who you will always find within;
And he is always there to serre you
With his everlasting grin.
Then there is beaming Hoffman
FVom way up North, in Troy;
And he is well known by the nurses
As the modest little boy.
These lads have been most faithful
While the trouble it did last;
And we always hope to find them
Just the same as in the past.
C. P. DAVIS
SUCCESSOR TO DAVIS & WHITE
Pure Food Groceries and Country Produce
3S1 NORTH TRYON STREET
TELEPHONE 331T-18