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When I arrived in Ganado the other physicians there were Dr. William Duncan Spining, who was Medical Director who have been there for quite number of years, and Dr. David Dolese, our Surgeon; Dr. William Lovekin overlapped only about a month with me. When I arrived on the staff I found out that the physicians of the staff member was quite different then it was in other parts of the country. Dr. Dolese and I, one evening, set a fracture and than applied a cast and when we were through applying the cast and discharge the patient, Dr. Dolese turn to me and said, “Now we clean up”. I was use to having a cast room orderly to do some of the messes work such as this but we fail too and emptied the plaster bucket, rinsed out the plaster sink, and cleaned up the rest of the room. My next great jolt came when we were call to bring in a young man who shot himself in a chest with a deer rifle. Chester Hubbard drove the ambulance and I accompanied him. After we picked up the young man at a home somewhere northeast of Ganado Lake, on the way back, I asked Chester if we should not call from a phone at one of the nearby houses over to the hospital that we were going to need blood transfusion. He laughed and informed me there were no phones in the area between where we picked up the patient from and to the hospital. He teased me about this green horn mistake for many years after that. In addition to our usual duties, we were called once in a while to perform veterinary services for which we had no prior training or experience. Dr. Ed Mehne recalls sewing up a horse which had a large cut and as soon as he finished putting in the last stitch, the horse shrub its skin and all the stitches popped out. He replaced the stitches with wire stitches instead and this seemed to hold. When the horse was brought back about two weeks later for inspection of the wound, it healed nicely and the horse removed its own stitches by rubbing against a post. I recall on one occasion just outside the emergency room of the new hospital, I was called upon to deliver a sheep that was having a very difficult birth, the lamb was unfortunately still born but I was able to extract the lamb and I think the ewe recovered. On another occasion a horse was brought in the back of a pick up truck and there was a concern that it might have some broken bones. So we had them drive the pick truck up to the platform that projected on the west end of the old hospital building. We brought a portable X-ray machine out onto the platform and had somebody lift the horse to place the x-ray film under the horse and took the picture there. Fortunately there were no broken bones and as far as I know the horse recovered well. On occasion we had to send a patient to the hospital in Albuquerque when the case was too complicated for our capabilities at Sage. To do this, we were called in for an air ambulance and have them land on the small air strip on top of the mesa. I recall one occasion when there was fairly deep snow on the field so several of the mission personnel drove their cars up to the air field, drove up and down packing down the snow to make it hard enough for the plane to land and take off. One least other occasion, the transport had to be made at night and we drove cars up and used their headlights as markers along the edge of the landing strip and illuminated the strip with the headlights. The one other episode I recall was when the strip was quite muddy, the pilot was able to land alright but in order to take off he had to lift one wheel out of the mud while he was still taxing the run way but he was able to get it airborne. Dr. Mehne and I shared many other reminisces but most of them were technical medical nature and probably would be of no interest to the general population. Of course, the hospital would not have function without the dedicated staff of excellent nurses and aides. Alta Gorman, 1946 graduate of Sage Memorial Hospital School of Nursing was our very able operating room supervisor, she schedules cases, supervised the scrub nurses, ordered supplies and was always ready for any emergency. Jewel (Kwaquahonewa) Wauneka who everyone called “Kaye” 1941 graduate of Sage Memorial Hospital School of Nursing was in charge of the outpatient department, she was noted as the fastest shot in the west and could give a very quick & rapidly painlessly injection. One of her good accomplishment was that she could read Dr. Spining’s handwriting when no one else in the hospital could. Rose Tsinajinnie was our aid in the outpatient dept. and also served as a Navajo translator, she was vital to the function of the unit. I am afraid over the years I have forgotten the names of many of the nurses who have served with us but a few names do stand out in my memory LT. Mary Etta (Hillis) Jeans, 1942 graduate of Sage Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, was one of these as well as Harriette C. (Curley) Manuelito, 1948 graduate of Sage Memorial Hospital School of Nursing; both of these were quite tough minded nurses that took absolutely no nonsense from either staff or patients. Margaret (Lee) Gorman, 1953 Ganado Mission High School graduate, is also a graduate of Nursing with Dallas Methodist Nursing School who had to graduate elsewhere because Dr. Salsbury closed the School of Nursing in 1951. She was younger but followed in the same pattern. Mark Delgai served as general handy man, an ambulance driver, occasionally orderly and was a jack of all trades. The very special time that both of us remember was the chapel services for our patients that we were able to travel to the chapel. Juan Denny and Luke Johnson was the lay evangelist who visited patients in the hospital for individual spiritual help in counseling. This is just a quick run down what we thought about that day and both of us agree that even if it was quite a hard work, three doctors was a bare minimum to cover the load that we were expected to deal with. It was an experience that was rich and fulfilling and neither one of us would have passed it up for the world. The close friendship of the hospital family and all the mission staff were truly inspiring. Again, we wish all of you the very best and trust the ceremony will go without a hitch. Thank you. Respectfully submitted: Dr. Donald Pinkerton, MD and Dr. Edwin Mehne, MD DP/EM/mal |