Roanoke Rapids daily herald., 1948-09-13

| kllllnS tnem! StOrmeQ BunQ-
esen. 81 don't know. And since
I know 1 don't know. I'd better
damn well find the fellows who
door I'm the killer"
Chicago's Lying - In hos
pital there was a small num-
Der of newborn autopsy records
limiting that bad obstetics
might be a culprit. But he
could never prove that, for all
Chicago. Mass autopsies of
newborn dead? Ridiculous Pr
rental sentiment against it.
To hundreds of bereaved mo-
theirs Bundesen went, personal
ly. "Your baby has died." he
said. I'VE don't know why,
but autopsy may tell us. That
may mean life for your next
baby, safety for babies of TIL
ousands of mothers. BY help
ing science to find why your
baby was taken away, you'll
give it a living monument.
For mothers too poor, Bun
dssen (out Of his own pocket
bought little grave plots an d
monuments.
In the mid 1905 scientific au-
topsies jumped to the unpreced-
ented figure of 80 per cent of
all newborn dead. Seven out
of every ten were found to have
died from causes other than
those given on death certifica-
ties; and the leading cause of
death, most often arising from in
reference with what should
have been normal childbirth.
Bad obstetrics-that was h
killer.
Bundesen now organized bo-
dyguard of Chicago's leading OBJ
stetricians and gynecologists.
This Maternal Welfare Commit
tee drew up regulations strange
and disturbing to Chicago's ply
sicians and hospitals. When the
death of newborn was flash
ed to Bundesen's office, squads
Of health department expert
dashed to the scene of the ira
gedy. Then all facts gathered
were laid before the eminent
Maternal Welfare Committees
representatives. If their inn
partial analysis decided death
needless, it was charged to the
doctor or hospital concerned. In
future, for any difficult child
| birth, expert consultation was
firmly advised.
The ife-saving results were
historic. By 1910 Chicago's in
FAINT death rate was down to
under 80 per 1000 live births.
Bundesen had come far since
1922, when $500 infants died
yearly; only 1900 were dying
now, despite a greatly increas-
ed number of births. The i'm
proved obstetrics that saved ba-
bies, saved mothers too; and the
city's maternal rate dropped to
half that of the country at large.
Bundesen has fought Chicago's
syphilis with his typical violence
Once his campaign almost cost
him his life. In the middle
l920s he dared Al Capone HIM
self by closing up AIS famous
brothel, the Four Deuces.
Later, as Bundesen was.
leaving a hotel, a gunman STEP
ed up to him, stuck gat right
in the Commissioners face and
pulled the trigger. The gun
missed fire. "That's the last
time I have been scared"
Bundesen says. My number
simply hasn't come up"
In 1912, when Bundesen was
so, he began the boldest and
most original of all his battles
against syphilis. Inspired by DR..
o. C. Wenger, of the U. S. Pub
lie Health Service he opened
the Chicago Intensive Treat
ment Center to help suffers by
free and speedy methods.
He lmeW it was impossible to
try to break the chain of cont
agious syphilis by the orthodox,
eighteen-months-long treatment
advocated by authorities. This
standard" treatment was so
painful and uncomfortable that
you lost three fourths of your
patients before they lost their
syphilis.
To guard his death fighters
both from medical attacks and
from their own youthful enth-
siasm, Bundesen surrounded
them with an advisory COM
mittee of syphilis experts and
scientists hand-picked for their
honesty open-mindedness and
hatred Of death. Under this pro-
lection the young doctors felt
their way toward a treatment
that would be speedy, powerful
and save.
Led by DR.. Theodore J. Bauer
of the U. S. Public Health Ser
vice they made rapid advances,
finding that artificial fever boast
ed the power of arsenicals and
and bismuth, speeding up eff
ective treatment; they discover
ed the syphilis-killing action of
penicillin so that you could give
a still more effective treatment.
Why not throw a Sunday punch?
The results may make medic
al history. All previous sys-