WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:17.770 [Your Tuberculosis Association Presents] 00:00:17.770 --> 00:00:26.270 [The Case History of Lucy X] 00:00:26.270 --> 00:00:37.400 [A story based on the actual case history taken from the files of the Association.] 00:00:37.400 --> 00:00:57.030 [Images of farm work and animals.] 00:00:57.030 --> 00:01:02.900 [Narrator:] On a modest farm, far out from town, Lucy X had been living with her aunt for two years. 00:01:02.900 --> 00:01:07.200 Two years of refusing to believe that she was sick with tuberculosis. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:11.200 She was constantly tired and couldn't seem to get rid of a cough. 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:14.830 Still, she had forced herself to stay up to keep working on the farm. 00:01:14.830 --> 00:01:20.330 But one day the pump handle was too heavy, and the water bucket an unbearable load. 00:01:20.330 --> 00:01:28.370 That terrible cough again. 00:01:28.370 --> 00:01:35.430 The taste of blood. 00:01:35.430 --> 00:01:37.200 Aunt Martha was frightened. 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:45.900 She should have taken Lucy to a doctor long ago, but Lucy was so terribly afraid of doctors. 00:01:45.900 --> 00:01:55.030 Aunt Martha called the family doctor immediately and arranged to send her to his office for a complete checkup. 00:01:55.030 --> 00:02:05.030 After the doctor had finished the complete physical examination and learned the case history, he sent Lucy home telling her not to worry. 00:02:05.030 --> 00:02:07.000 But the doctor was worried. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:09.670 That was advanced tuberculosis. 00:02:09.670 --> 00:02:17.270 Immediate sanatorium treatment was her only chance, and he knew the family could not afford such expense. 00:02:17.270 --> 00:02:20.830 Then he thought of the Tuberculosis Association. 00:02:20.830 --> 00:02:26.970 The field worker in the Tuberculosis Association was glad to help in obtaining hospitalization for Lucy. 00:02:26.970 --> 00:02:39.800 On the doctor's suggestion, she prepared at once to call on the family and to attempt to arrange with the authorities for Lucy's care. 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:45.800 Cooperation with physicians and public authorities in meeting the difficult problems of patients 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:49.700 is part of the responsibility of Tuberculosis Associations. 00:02:49.700 --> 00:02:52.870 The public expects it, rightfully. 00:02:52.870 --> 00:03:00.570 Each year millions of people buy Tuberculosis Christmas seals to help protect their homes from this deadly contagion. 00:03:00.570 --> 00:03:05.900 Tuberculosis Associations accept this money and spend it on their scientific guidelines. 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:10.730 It is a plus symbolized by the double-barred cross. 00:03:10.730 --> 00:03:15.800 The field worker told Aunt Martha that tax-supported institutions now care for persons who 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:19.900 have tuberculosis in order to keep the disease from spreading. 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:32.030 Hospitalization of one tuberculosis patient may prevent many new cases. 00:03:32.030 --> 00:03:36.030 She told Lucy a sanatorium was where complete bed rest was possible, 00:03:36.030 --> 00:03:41.970 with wonderful equipment that had been perfected to help persons who were fighting tuberculosis. 00:03:41.970 --> 00:03:45.570 All of these were available for Lucy. 00:03:45.570 --> 00:03:48.470 Lucy wanted to be left with her Aunt Martha. 00:03:48.470 --> 00:03:53.430 She offered to stay in bed, do anything the doctor advised if she could stay at home. 00:03:53.430 --> 00:03:56.300 The field worker explained that this was not enough. 00:03:56.300 --> 00:04:07.930 The specialized work of the tuberculosis sanatorium cannot be done in a home. 00:04:07.930 --> 00:04:14.700 Finally, Lucy consented to go, but it was the decision of the sick person too weak to resist longer, 00:04:14.700 --> 00:04:31.870 not the cooperation of one who has hope. 00:04:31.870 --> 00:04:36.300 It was late that night when the field worker's car turned into the sanatorium's drive. 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:42.600 She'd called in advance and arranged with the night supervisor to have a room ready for the patient. 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:47.530 The sanatorium staff feel deep sympathy for the emergency cases, 00:04:47.530 --> 00:05:05.100 the people who have waited too long, for the staff well knows how deadly delays can be. 00:05:05.100 --> 00:05:11.330 [Jaunty carousel music.] 00:05:11.330 --> 00:05:16.030 While Lucy was still sleeping, the floor nurse was preparing to care for her. 00:05:16.030 --> 00:05:22.730 Working directly over the sick person, the nurse might breathe the tuberculosis germs into her own lungs. 00:05:22.730 --> 00:05:32.700 For that reason, she wears a mask over her nose and mouth, and the sterile gown over her uniform. 00:05:32.700 --> 00:05:35.400 The nurse knew that her first task that morning 00:05:35.400 --> 00:05:41.630 was to make Lucy feel that the sanatorium staff were her friends, and wanted to help her. 00:05:41.630 --> 00:05:50.400 That was of primary importance. 00:05:50.400 --> 00:05:56.000 She must also teach her to hold a tissue over her mouth to keep her from spreading the germs. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:01.130 Years before, Lucy had been in a sanatorium where her mother was a patient. 00:06:01.130 --> 00:06:05.800 Her examination had shown that she had tuberculosis in an early form. 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:08.900 The disease cannot be inherited. 00:06:08.900 --> 00:06:14.030 Lucy had probably taken it from her own mother in the daily contact of the household. 00:06:14.030 --> 00:06:17.670 Her mother died before Lucy could be placed in a sanatorium. 00:06:17.670 --> 00:06:22.070 After that, terror-stricken, Lucy refused to go. 00:06:22.070 --> 00:06:25.570 To her, sanatoriums meant death. 00:06:25.570 --> 00:06:27.930 She had then fled to her aunt's farm. 00:06:27.930 --> 00:06:35.130 She thought fresh air would cure tuberculosis, but it had not cured. 00:06:35.130 --> 00:06:38.200 Rest is the key element in the cure for tuberculosis. 00:06:38.200 --> 00:06:45.430 Rest, highly specialized rest, such as can be supplied only in a proper hospital. 00:06:45.430 --> 00:06:48.300 But Lucy had no faith in the sanatorium. 00:06:48.300 --> 00:06:50.570 Her mother had died in one. 00:06:50.570 --> 00:06:55.630 She didn't realize that the mother was already fatally sick with tuberculosis when she went there. 00:06:55.630 --> 00:06:58.830 That it was too late then... 00:06:58.830 --> 00:07:03.970 Hot with fever and indifferent, she submitted to the examination. 00:07:03.970 --> 00:07:09.730 For the diagnosis of her case, the doctor needed to know not only the damage done to her lungs, 00:07:09.730 --> 00:07:13.270 but also her complete physical condition. 00:07:13.270 --> 00:07:18.000 Whether the sanatorium could cure Lucy now was a question they could not yet answer. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:24.100 Their first job is to show her that the sanatorium is a place of great hope. 00:07:24.100 --> 00:07:32.330 The doctor asked the nurse to encourage Lucy to eat a good breakfast, and then to prepare her for a chest x-ray. 00:07:32.330 --> 00:07:55.800 [Music] 00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:58.830 In a sanatorium, food is of the utmost importance. 00:07:58.830 --> 00:08:02.230 It is scientifically selected and prepared. 00:08:02.230 --> 00:08:06.800 Patients in various stages of recovery need different foods. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:11.730 The dietician who plans the meals takes this into consideration. 00:08:11.730 --> 00:08:16.670 Fresh fruits and vegetables, milk and eggs, all of these are body builders. 00:08:16.670 --> 00:08:24.730 And with tuberculosis, the problem is just that, to heal those portions of the body destroyed by disease. 00:08:24.730 --> 00:08:42.270 This is one part of the specialized work which the sanatorium offers. 00:08:42.270 --> 00:08:45.770 Another phase is done by technicians in the laboratories, 00:08:45.770 --> 00:08:51.430 whose studies help the doctors in determining the exact conditions of their patients. 00:08:51.430 --> 00:08:53.130 And then came the x-rays. 00:08:53.130 --> 00:08:57.330 X-ray is like a flash of lightning that momentarily lights up the lungs 00:08:57.330 --> 00:09:04.630 so that a shadow picture can be made of the lung tissue itself. 00:09:04.630 --> 00:09:29.970 [Music] 00:09:29.970 --> 00:09:36.400 An expert x-ray technician makes the picture and only a specialist can rightly interpret it. 00:09:36.400 --> 00:09:41.700 A doctor who know how to read such a picture can tell much about the progress of the disease 00:09:41.700 --> 00:09:51.170 and can decide from that what kind of treatment to undertake. 00:09:51.170 --> 00:09:56.600 The medical staff studied the x-ray film, comparing it with one sent from the other sanatorium 00:09:56.600 --> 00:10:00.430 that had been taken at time her mother was there. 00:10:00.430 --> 00:10:04.170 The first one showed early minimal disease had just started. 00:10:04.170 --> 00:10:10.100 Now there was a hole in her lung where the disease had eaten away part of the lung tissue. 00:10:10.100 --> 00:10:13.570 This was advanced pulmonary tuberculosis. 00:10:13.570 --> 00:10:16.630 Those months on the farm had taken a toll. 00:10:16.630 --> 00:10:22.270 The doctors decided that surgery might save the lung, but Lucy was too weak now for an operation. 00:10:22.270 --> 00:10:34.530 To build up her strength, complete bed rest was prescribed. 00:10:34.530 --> 00:10:39.830 Day after day, Lucy grew steadily weaker because she had no will to live. 00:10:39.830 --> 00:10:59.870 During her regular rounds one night, her nurse stopped in Lucy's room, 00:10:59.870 --> 00:11:03.300 and then came directly to the doctor's office. 00:11:03.300 --> 00:11:08.170 "Lucy seems worse," the nurse reported. 00:11:08.170 --> 00:11:14.730 Every physician knows that the mental state of a patient can adversely influence the physical. 00:11:14.730 --> 00:11:26.930 To deal with such a problem is not simple, and to succeed requires more than a knowledge of medicine. 00:11:26.930 --> 00:11:39.270 Lucy must want to get well and believe that she could get well. 00:11:39.270 --> 00:11:43.870 Outside of the nurses' station, Lucy's nurse waited anxiously. 00:11:43.870 --> 00:11:55.830 All of the sanatorium staff are deeply concerned if a patient loses the will to fight. 00:11:55.830 --> 00:12:02.430 The doctor tried to tell Lucy that she must look beyond the few years here at the sanatorium to the life that awaited her. 00:12:02.430 --> 00:12:06.330 A normal life that any young girl should enjoy. 00:12:06.330 --> 00:12:14.470 There should be work, play, romance. 00:12:14.470 --> 00:12:20.770 Beyond these [?] months waited all the years that could be shaped into useful living. 00:12:20.770 --> 00:12:34.630 [Music] 00:12:34.630 --> 00:12:36.800 As the night wore on, he struck the right chord. 00:12:36.800 --> 00:12:40.100 The listless mask broke, Lucy looked up and smiled. 00:12:40.100 --> 00:12:42.000 "Yes," she whispered. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:43.970 She would try to get well. 00:12:43.970 --> 00:12:58.970 She believed she could get well. 00:12:58.970 --> 00:13:01.970 Lucy cooperated and steadily improved. 00:13:01.970 --> 00:13:08.270 She became strong enough so that some surgery to close the lung cavity could be applied. 00:13:08.270 --> 00:13:10.830 Pneumothorax treatments were begun. 00:13:10.830 --> 00:13:17.930 A pneumo, as they call it, temporarily collapses the lung so that it can rest and heal itself. 00:13:17.930 --> 00:13:25.130 To collapse the lung in this way, air is injected through a needle into the chest, but outside of the lung sac. 00:13:25.130 --> 00:13:32.000 This gradually forces the lung up into smaller space so that it will have a chance to heal. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:39.200 The other lung does the necessary work of breathing for the body, while the collapsed lung lies still. 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:45.570 A broken leg could not be healed with constant exercise, neither could an ulcer or a lung be healed while the lung 00:13:45.570 --> 00:13:49.970 continues in full motion of breathing. 00:13:49.970 --> 00:13:55.930 At first these pneumos are given every day, later every two weeks. 00:13:55.930 --> 00:13:58.500 The procedure is done under a local anesthetic. 00:13:58.500 --> 00:14:00.030 There is no pain. 00:14:00.030 --> 00:14:10.670 It requires but a few minutes of time. 00:14:10.670 --> 00:14:16.870 For pneumothorax treatment, a fluoroscope is used to study the lung's condition. 00:14:16.870 --> 00:14:21.030 The degree of collapse can be observed by the doctors. 00:14:21.030 --> 00:14:25.630 After some months Lucy's sputum carried no more tuberculosis germs. 00:14:25.630 --> 00:14:31.500 Then she was moved to a two-bedroom with Ann, a girl who was at the same stage of treatment. 00:14:31.500 --> 00:14:42.200 Lucy's body must remain at complete rest for months to come, but not her mind. 00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:49.970 The sanatorium's Educational Director now joined the medical staff in working for Lucy's recovery. 00:14:49.970 --> 00:14:56.700 [Music] 00:14:56.700 --> 00:15:05.470 In sanatorium, patients are permitted to complete formal schooling interrupted by their isolation in the hospital. 00:15:05.470 --> 00:15:24.800 [Music] 00:15:24.800 --> 00:15:27.000 It isn't enough to find the patient a book. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:30.500 That book should help him towards some definite goal. 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:34.730 For Lucy, that goal is fashion designing. 00:15:34.730 --> 00:15:46.170 [Music] 00:15:46.170 --> 00:15:57.270 In the meantime, Lucy was eagerly completing one high school subject after another. 00:15:57.270 --> 00:16:01.100 Being allowed up for meals was the next big step for Lucy. 00:16:01.100 --> 00:16:05.270 Both she and Ann had been transferred to the up-patient wing of the sanatorium 00:16:05.270 --> 00:16:13.130 where they were allowed to go to the dining room for one meal a day. 00:16:13.130 --> 00:16:17.970 Even in this stage of improvement, afternoon rest hours were important. 00:16:17.970 --> 00:16:24.300 The body needed rest to repair the lung tissue that tuberculosis had destroyed. 00:16:24.300 --> 00:16:38.270 So work towards high school diploma and fashion designing had to be done within strict limitations. 00:16:38.270 --> 00:16:41.730 Although it would be months before she could leave the sanatorium, 00:16:41.730 --> 00:16:47.200 plans began for that day when she would reenter the world and look for a job. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:50.600 This is called rehabilitation. 00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:55.600 In some instances, rehabilitation means the teaching of a new trade. 00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:06.070 In Lucy's case, it meant finishing high school and choosing a vocation. 00:17:06.070 --> 00:17:11.800 When she had completed the last course necessary for high school graduation, they brought her a diploma. 00:17:11.800 --> 00:17:17.570 Diplomas are usually presented on platforms while a large audience of friends look on. 00:17:17.570 --> 00:17:22.430 Aunt Martha and her teacher were the only audience on Lucy's graduation day. 00:17:22.430 --> 00:17:24.830 But it was hard to tell who was the most pleased. 00:17:24.830 --> 00:17:29.330 That was a very special day. 00:17:29.330 --> 00:17:42.700 [Music] 00:17:42.700 --> 00:17:47.370 But the real triumph came when Lucy was healed and ready to go back into the world. 00:17:47.370 --> 00:17:53.000 There was a time when sanatorium patients after several idle years were simply released. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:58.100 No guidance in finding jobs, few friends to help them make contact. 00:17:58.100 --> 00:18:07.830 Such persons often returned to the sanatorium within a few years, broken in body and spirit. 00:18:07.830 --> 00:18:11.000 Because sanatoriums have learned from these tragedies, 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:15.970 they now begin planning for the patient from the first day of treatment. 00:18:15.970 --> 00:18:20.470 In Lucy's case, the sanatorium staff had kept her in touch with the outside world. 00:18:20.470 --> 00:18:24.300 She wasn't being turned out of the sanatorium with no place to go. 00:18:24.300 --> 00:18:29.300 She had a goal and practical training to reach it. 00:18:29.300 --> 00:19:21.600 [Music] 00:19:21.600 --> 00:19:28.830 The rehabilitation agent will continue to be her counselor. 00:19:28.830 --> 00:19:34.230 "Remember," the doctor cautioned her, "you must come in often for a checkup." 00:19:34.230 --> 00:19:50.100 Therein lay her assurance, that in leaving the sanatorium she was not losing its protecting strength. 00:19:50.100 --> 00:19:56.030 The sanatorium stands ever-vigilant, healer of the sick, guardian of the public health. 00:19:56.030 --> 00:20:06.230 With such a friend, Lucy in happy confidence went out to strive for success, to achieve the life of a normal, healthy girl. 00:20:06.230 --> 00:20:11.230 The End.