Results tagged “York Hospital” from York Town Square

York Hospital started sprawling along the hillside south of York, Pa., from its earliest days after its move from West College Avenue in 1930. That move marked its 50th year of operation. Now, the hospital's parent is reaching into Harrisburg. This week, officials at WellSpan said they would explore a merger with PinnacleHealth of Harrisburg. This photograph comes from longtime York Hospital surgeon Ray Kehm's book "The Birth of a Surgeon." Also of interest: Doctor wrote about oxygen use to aid 'average country practitioners' and Spanish flu epidemic in York: 'People died one right after the other' and Civil War hospital: A master's thesis waiting to be written and West Side Sanitarium, later West Side Osteopathic and later Memorial Hospital born in The Avenues in York.

"One winter day in December 1879, a man named Small acted upon a not-so-small idea and began the serious planning that would before long culminate in a hospital for York, Pennsylvania."

So began the preface of Florence La Rose Ames' "That Sovereign Knowledge," a history of York Hospital's first 100 years.

A hospital was needed in post-Civil War York County... .

This clip from The (York, Pa.) Gazette and Daily observes what happened on the war front "over there" in World War I. It shows part of a roll call of the 195 or more York countians who died, including George Woods (left), fighting with a machine gun unit. While those in the military were battling the Germans, the Spanish flu and other deadly diseases in France, their families back home were struggling against the flu virus, as well. Background posts: World War I bond drive: Spanish 'Flu bug, no more than Hun, was not going to tarnish York's perfect patriotic record' and York's Spanish flu epidemic of 1918: 'It remains one of the darkest periods for White Rose residents' and Easter in York County, 1919: Sadness, joy, hope.

York Hospital had no ambulances except a horse-drawn carriage in 1918.

That was particularly problematic in this year of the pandemic Spanish flu.

"(B)ut even if there had been one, it could not have taken all of the stricken to the hospital; there was simply no room for all of them there," Florence La Rose Ames wrote in "That Sovereign Knowledge."

That history detailing the hospitals first hundred years starting in 1880 made several points about the homefront flu battle:

John Wilkes Booth attended school in York years before he gamed infamy for assassinating Abraham Lincoln. Background posts: James A. Garfield: 'York was the capital of the United States when congress was on wheels' and Piece of John Wilkes Booth's body to be shown in Philly and Abraham Lincoln was here.

Those attending the recent Treasures of the Trust were treated to two photographs that served as a reminder of an infamous former resident here.

The photographs at this York County Heritage Trust-sponsored event captured John Wilkes Booth (a cropped version is shown above) and the school he attended in York for a short spell in 1853.

An exhibit booklet said this of Booth and his school: ...

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This image, used as a basis for a large-scale panel in the York County Heritage Trust's Murals of York series, shows Dr. George Holtzapple deploying oxygen to treat a Loganville pneumonia patient. This image appeared in York Hospital's history 'That Sovereign Knowledge.' Tradition has it that this pioneering treatment took place in the house's basement. Background posts: Looking for a local history research project? and Of surgical saws, bloodletting and Brown's in Loganville: 'I didn't know a peach tree from an apple tree, but we learned quickly.'

Lois Stoner, a nurse in York, e-mailed recently wondering why the Loganville house where Dr. George Holtzapple saved young pneumonia sufferer Frederick Gable's life is not marked with a historical monument.

She raises a good point ... .

The large-scale outdoor panel, part of the Murals of York series, shows Dr. George Holtzapple deploying oxygen to treat a Loganville pneumonia patient. Background posts: Looking for a local history research project? and Of surgical saws, bloodletting.

George Holtzapple, longtime physician at York Hospital, has been credited in local lore as the very first user of oxygen for treatment of pneumonia in 1885.

As a young physician, just out of medical school, Holtzapple (1862-1946) used a primitive experiment to produce oxygen to save the life of 16-year-old Frederick Gable.

Well, two York Hospital researchers, writing in the Journal of Medical Biography in November 2005, have clarified Holtzapple's achievement... .

This photograph from Florence La Rose Ames' "That Sovereign Knowledge," shows the Women' Ward at York Hospital around the turn of the 20th century. Parts of the hospital, then located on West College Avenue, serves as an apartment complex today. The hospital moved to its South George Street campus in 1930. Background posts: Yank mortally wounded on ninth day of service and Doctor wrote about oxygen use to aid 'average country practitioners' and Cemetery bears rich Civil War tales.

The U.S. Army General Hospital, the large Civil War hospital located on Penn Park, is a master's thesis waiting to happen.

To my knowledge, no scholarly work has been written on the complex, which operated from 1862 to past war's end. The hospital even had its own newspaper, available on microfilm, so it would be possible to pull together strands into a helpful monograph.

One intriguing piece of that research would be to connect the dots, if possible, between the military hospital and York Hospital, started in 1880.

Some links aren't hard to find: ...

York Hospital's Dr. Douglas Arbittier shows a 1730s-vintage saw used to amputate limbs. He will demonstrate saws from his collection on a History Channel program. See History Channel for programming.

Douglas Arbittier has collected surgical saws and bloodletting devices for years. He even has a Web site to show off his collection.

His collection gives a poignant view of progress in medicine and the horrors of war.

York County, of course, is historically in tune with such horrors. In fact, the the U.S. Army Military Hospital operating in York during the Civil War had its own collection of surgical saws... .

This turn-of-the-20th-century building was originally used to burn refuse from York city and York Hospital. It's been converted into a crematorium.

Last post told the story of Revolutionary War patriot Henry Laurens, apparently the first American to be officially cremated in the 1790s.

Two hundred years later, the practice is gaining visibility around York, where Laurens dwelt for nine months as president of Continental Congress in 1777-78.

In 2000, a small brick building with a large smokestack on Kings Mill Road became a crematorium.

For years, it had been rumored that the then-spooky building was originally used for burning bodies.

A 1955 newspaper article gives a glimpse at how that legend grew. As the story goes, a south-side neighborhood gang lurked around the building on Halloween night. Some gang members who peeked in a window reportedly saw a "job" under way.

Thus ended their sleep for a month... .