Announcements:
Kathy Eaton said that the District Governor and his wife had had a good time and that on their way out of town had stopped to see Bill Harrison at Fort Bayard Medical Centerand really enjoyed visiting with him. Dalue Mize invited everyone to Indian Springs Ranch for their second annual beef raffle and BBQ fundraising event on August 16 starting at 10 am. They’re located at 875 N. Star Mesa Road, Mimbres, NM. She thanked the club for their past support through our bake sale. Jim Callender said we have scheduled another one for this year on September 15 at Gough Park.

 

Ray introduced Dr. John Bell, a founder of Silver Health Care and long practicing physician in Silver City, who was going to talk about the history of medicine and TB treatment in Silver City. Dr. Bell began by passing out pictures of a pine tree that was planted at Ft. Bayard in 1905. He also passed out a tree that is a native of India that was planted here and thought to have healing powers. In 1898 the Rough Riders were here, more than any other territory or
state in the Union. Ft. Bayard was no longer a fort and was closed in 1899. The Surgeon General of the US decided Ft. Bayard would be a good medical center and established the US Army Tuberculosis Hospital. Tuberculosis (TB) was the leading cause of death in the 1900’s. Two things happened: railroads were developed and came through New Mexico and there was
a German scientist named Koch who discovered the cause of TB. People believed that coming West would cure TB and came in droves when trains were developed. Silver City was in the
midst and the Cottage Sans Sanitorium was probably the best known in New Mexico. For $60 a month you could stay there. For the next several years Ft. Bayard probably had over 20,000
TB patients. A man named Bushnell became the commander at Ft. Bayard in 1904. He, himself, had TB over four times and recovered. The treatment for TB was good nutrition, three
good meals a day, to build up strength. If you weren’t gaining strength and weight, cod liver oil and raw eggs were added to your diet. Because of the higher elevation it was thought less
oxygen helped starve the TB germ. Rest was considered very important; sunshine was considered very important too. At Ft. Bayard they had mirror therapy where you put a mirror in
your mouth and reflected sun into various parts of your mouth. Patients slept in tents on the parade ground with the flaps open or on porches in front of the buildings for fresh air even in
the winter. Bushnell was the leading world expert on TB. He established the Army Nursing Corp. In 1917 Bushnell was recalled to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC to become the Chief Pulmonologist and Chief Tuberculosis man for the United States Army. In 1922 he retired.
One third of the people who had TB died. The minimum time you were a patient was about six months if you followed instructions. However, it was not unusual for patients to stay ten years.
By 1940 the death rate had fallen to 40 per 100,000. By 1940’s tests had been developed to determine early if you had TB even though they didn’t have medicine to treat it. If you had TB,
you were immediately sent to a Sanitorium. In 1946 drugs for treatment began becoming available. TB is still active in the US with about 5,000 people a year getting it. However, there
has not been a case of TB in Grant County for several years.
Dr. Bell then opened the meeting for questions.

 

After a question and answer period, Ray adjourned the meeting at 1:00 pm.