THE MAYO DOCTORS

Old Trunks is certain all of you have heard about the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Let's think about the beginnings of the doctors Mayo.

In the mid 1880's , medicine was primitive, at best. Remember the stethoscope was NEW, there was no thermometers yet, and one could only hope that baby would live. Remember that surgeon's washed their hands AFTER surgery, not before. Doctors were judged at how fast they could saw through bones.

Enter William W. Mayo who in the frontier of Minnesota,in 1850 began practicing medicine in a little town of Rochester, which has become one of the greatest medical centers in the world. His sons Charlie and Will would follow in their father's foot steps in the 1880's.

The Rochester Record and Union newspaper of April 23, 1880 states Dr. Mayo and associates removed a cancerous tumor off the cheek of a woman. The tumor was at the base of her right eat and an artery ran through the base of it. She is doing very well although it was a delicate and dangerous surgery.

In July of 1882 Dr. Mayo removed a tumor from the top of a man's head. It was eating through the bone. The operation was successful.

A few years later, The Sisters of St. Francis erected a free stating hospital. The paper states, (about Mayo),Although these examples of surgery are noble, nothing is an noble was the erection and maintenance of a free hospital where one received the best care and attention, (speaking of the Sisters of St. Francis).

By 1889, it is reported the doctors Mayo are performing removal of the bowel as well as wiring hip bones together of a man who was kicked by a vicious stallion.

In 1906 a leading surgeon from St. Louis is quoted by the paper as saying he had witnessed 104 operations in a few days and everyone has been successful.

Many of us know someone who has been, once again at Rochester and once again, diagnosed and had surgery after physicians in his home state could not figure out the problem.

As it was with my own mother, who, in 1949, was tired and slept a lot. Daddy was told to take her to Arizona for hot baths. She just kept getting worse. Daddy loaded her up in the car and dropped her off at Mayo. He brought me to my great aunt's in St. Paul and went back to Rochester. By the time he returned, she had been diagnosed.

Brilliant, don't you think?

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