Crisp-Dooly County GaArchives News.....Cordele's First Nurse Recalls Old Hospitals September 12, 1955
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Cordele Dispatch September 12, 1955
               Cordele's First Nurse Recalls Old Hospitals
    Forty six years ago Cordele's first hospital was reserved for the dying,
while babies were decorously born in the old family bed, or elsewhere as the
spirit caught up with the prospective mother, At least that is the memory of
Miss Lucas, Cordele's first nurse.
    Miss Fannie George Lucas, although born at Hartellstore, North Carolina,
points with pride to the fact that her father, a doctor, brought the family to
Georgia when she was four years old. A sister, Mrs. H. Marshall, was according
to her reasoning a little luckier. She came along later, and was accordingly
born in Georgia.
    Miss Lucas, while marveling at Crisp County's splendid hospital today,
complete with all its equipment, recalls the first groping effect of long ago.
Dr. Thomas J. McArthur.. Dr. Charley's daddy---insisted we must have a hospital.
It was established upstairs, in Pate's building over the present
Sherwin-Williams store on Seventh Street. I know the story of that beginning so
well, for I was called in to help for a few dhours, and was retained for six
months.
THREE BEDROOMS
     The first hospital consisted of three bedrooms, a living room, dining room,
kitchen and bath. Along with a few iron cots and a stationary operating table,
there was a big kitchen range. The nurses and patients lived a communal life.
There were no serums; ether and chloroform were the only anesthetics.
  Everyone, doctor and patient alike, was mighty shy about operating. Dr.
McArthur later went back to school and studied surgery. That brings up the story
of the negro man, scheduled for a tonsillectomy.
   "Dr. McArthur, please suh. he plead "let's have a word of prayer "fore you
put them knives in me!"It's recalled that both parties joined fervently in
supplication, but whether or not the patient survived the ordeal is beyond memory.
            CONTRACTS TYPHOID
     In those days there were no diagnostic devices. The old time killers,
typhoid, diphtheria, pneumonia, and scarlet fever [now all but eradicated] were
common then. Miss Lucas fell victim to typhoid.
     An appendectomy was the most serious of operations. Then the patient stayed
in bed for four weeks, and three of the four he was flat of his back. Today he's
usually on his feet in twenty four hours, and out of the hospital in three days.
    In early times rubber gloves were unknown, and the doctor practically rubbed
the skin off his hands, prior to operating. He carried his instruments wherever
he went in a little black bag. Linen was sterilized, by baking, it in the oven
of the big kitchen range. Sutures were of catgut [which arrived in big packages,
unsterilized] which were then boiled.
    At the old hospital two nurses, Miss Lucas and Mrs. Edna Sims, handled 24
hour duty, with two hours off each afternoon. There were no regular visiting
hours at the hospital, and the more serious the case, the more numerous the
distracted relatives underfoot at all hours.
      COOK---TECHNICIAN
     At the time X-ray was unknown to the South. However, Miss Lucas had a
special advantage in that quarter. She had actually seen one of the
contraptions. What the hospital did boast was a negro cook who labored over the
old wood range, alternately cooking food, baking surgical dressings, and boiling
catgut. Dishes were mighty scarce around the place, and patients and nurses
alike awaited their turn at mealtime.
       QUASI--MODERN
    On the brighter side of the ledger, there was electricity and telephone
service. However, the latter was the old wall-type, hand-crank affair. When the
doctor needed a nurse "rang-up" and placed the problem of locating then man
squarely in Central's hands.
    For all the trials and apparent inefficiencies of that day, Miss Frances
George Lucas is almost fierce in her insistence that we should especially
cherish our wonderful hospital today. It is the out growth of pioneering,
And-while chuckling with misty eyes over her memories of the typical
doctor-surgeon of another generation, she recalls that to the profession she
owes her ability to walk today Following typhoid fever, she suffered infantile
paralysis. After two years, surgery put her on her feet. 

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