Jones Journal
‘A BETTER COUNTY THROUGH IMPROVED FARM PRACTICES”
FOUR
TRENTON, N. C. Thursday, November 13,1952
N UAwBR 2*7
arvelous Operation Is
ompanied By Humor
capital
to BaltimoreijlSpfis&te and Won
derful as the operation was It
was hot entered into with such
a grave air, Coble says now In
comment upon his visit to Bal
timore.
World Famed Dr. Jack Guiton
who has been performing corn
eal transplant operations since
1914 did the job on Coble and
Coble says he did a good Job.
Coble had been slowly growing
blind and for several years had
extremely poor eyesight. Early
this fall he went to Baltimore,
entered Johns Hopkins and be
gan his wait for better sight.
Dr. Guiton Is noted for his
bashful air and rather hesitant
manner. After Coble had waited
in the hospital for about two
weeks he says Dr. Guiton came
pjeaare around one morning and
' -^rather apologetically said, “I’m
laorry as I can be about keeping
you waiting for an eye, but you
know, I can’t just go out and kill
somebody to get you one.”
The transplanting of a c°rnea
frpm one eye to another in ad
dition to being one 6f the world’s
most delicate jobs is also one
that has to be done within not
less than 48 hours after the
corenea )& remover from the
donor’s eye.
Most of these donated cornea
; came from New York City where
wide publicity is given In the
search for sight for people either
blind' or growing blind. Af*er
being taken from the eye of the
who is giving it, then it
to Baltimore by plane
Dr. Guiton cuts the
from the patient’s
places the good cornea
of this aeration lie
actually see the Doctor
orklng on hi# eye.
He could see the Doctor cut
ting out his "no good” cornea,
see him placing in the new,
slightly used but perfectly good
one and then watched the sew
ing take place. At one time dur
ing the operation Coble says the
Doctor got to pushing down on
his nose and he asked him to
let up a little, since he was
having trouble breatheing.
Dr. Guiton cracked, “Don’t
worry, we haven’t lost a patient
yet.”
After the operation both Co
ble’s eyes were covered with
•bandage for about two weeks
and then the eye that not been
operated on was uncovered and
then after about another week
the “new eye” was unveiled.
Coble was elected “President
of the Transplant Club” shortly
afterwards when he became the
first one to identify the colors
of a vase df flowers siting in a
window of the "Transplant
Clubroom.”
i
Now Coble Is walking about
Kinston, without glasses and
able to see better than in many
years. In about two more weeks
he will have glasses fitted, since
now his is -waiting for his “new
eye” to get broken In. As Dr.
Guiton told him, “There’s no
need of getting a pair of glasses
now and then having to get a
nother pair in a coupl'e of weeks.
The cornea is the window to
the eye. It lets the light inside
where it touches the light-sen
sitive nerve centers which trans
fer the image to the brain cen
ters. An eye that is completely
bad cannot be repaired with
this wonderful surgery but an
eye that only has a defective
cornea can be made almost "good
as new.” '
Cable says that will have a
bout 20-30 vision in his new eye
after it is broken in. ,
Jimmy Rochelle, one of sev
eral listening to Coble recount
Continue do nPage 6
: -
Hospital Board Asks For Funds
To Build Negro Training School
In Its appearance before the
Advisory Budget Commission the
North Carolina Hospitals Board
of Control has asked for not less
than two and a half million
dollars to fill one of the biggest
gaps' in the state’s system of
hospitals, a training school for
Negro children comparable to
the Caswell Training School for
white children already operat
ing at Kinston.
It is much too far In advance
to predict with any degree of
accuracy just how this request
will be i.net by the 1953 North
Carolina General Assembly. Gov
ernor-Elect William Umstead has
not made any public statements
on this particular issue.
It is not even known at this
juncture if the budget recom
mendations now in preparation
will include this request. There
is probability, however, that this
request will be given serious con
sideration and for a number of
good reasons.
The first and best reason is,
of course, the pressing need for
such a unit. At present feeble
minded Negro children are either
cared for in their home or in
the worst instances admitted to
the hospital for the insane at
Goldsboro.
If this two and a half million
dollars request runs the gaunt
let of the Assembly and the Hos
eration must be the selection of
a site.
It has been projected that the
school would be located at
Goldsboro, since the state al
ready owns sufficient land there
and some savings In adminis
tration and operation might be
effected by having the hospital
for the insane and the school for
feebleminded located together.
| This Goldsboro location Of the
school has not met with the 100'
per cent support of the medical1
men connected with the board,
who feel, in the majority, that
the two institutions are so com
pletely different in their intent
and operation that putting them
together would be most unsuit
able from any professional point
of view.
Since the great bulk of North
Carolina’s Negro population is
located east of Durham, it is
fairly well agreed by all who
have given thought to this much
needed school that it would
properly be located somewhere
in Eastern Carolina. If suitable
lands were available and if for
professional reasons the Golds
boro location is vetoed then the
field is more or less wide-open
In the rest of Eastern Carolina’s
51 counties. •
Jones County is one of the
State’s largest counties, in area,
but is also one of the State’s
most sparsely populated coun
ties, Both of these , offer argu
unentjfeirlevel consideration
cation for this school.
In Jones County a site is a
vailable of several hundred a
cres, the former Oak Grove Air
Base, which is now owned by
the Federal Government but
could be obtained for a state in
stitution of the type proposed
for this Negro training school.
The availability of such a highly
desirable tract of land plus its
central location in Eastern North
Carolina combine to cause even
closer examination of Jones
County as a good and logical
site for this proposed institution.
This site is almost halfway
between the Virginia and South
Carolina borders. It has rail fa
cilities for the moving of heavy
freight and equipment. It is lo
cated close to one of the nation’s
major highways, US 17, and it
is paralleled by a newly paved
road. It is less than three miles
from one of Jones County's
largest communities, Polocks
ville, is less tha neight miles
from Trenton, the Jones County
seat. It is just over 30 miles
from the white school for feeble
minded at Kinston, which would
permit an interchange of infor
mation and methods between the
two schools. It is on’y 13 miles
from New Bern.
Jones Countj' at present, in
spite of being one of the oldest
settled counties of .North Caro
lina, has no state institution of
any size' or type within . its
| boundaries/
inued on Page 8
' '• ■
'mV 1
11-rvirrr
Miss Shirley Howard of Trenton, bestows
“a smile of a queen” for the photographer
at tiie recent Jones County Agricaltnral Fair.
Miss Howard was crowned Queen of the Fair
by three servicemen-judges: Marine Sergeant
Laird A. Lhota, Camp Lejeune; William G.
King, HM/3c. USN, U. S. Naval Hospital here;
Aviation Cadet Richard Casey, Stallings Air
Force Base at Kinston. (Official Marine Corps
Photo.) *