Museum Corner April 2020
Hubert (Hubie) Wheatley (1939-2016)—developed polio at age three when he lived in Tell City. Treatments required isolation and painful rehabilitation at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis where, for safety, his parents could visit just once a week. A brace would enable him to stand and walk, but the muscle deteriorated. As he grew, the affected right leg did not meet the growth pattern of the left. As a young teen, surgeons removed a portion of his left leg in order to make both legs the same length. They straightened his right foot and ankle to make it possible for him to put weight on it, but doctors and therapy could not bring flexibility back to the right ankle or foot.
In this picture, 15-year old Hubie is working at Camp Koch. For the rest of his life, he worked with children with physical disabilities and helped them to develop confidence and push for living a normal life. He moved to Lawrence County in 1963 as a mechanical engineer at Crane Naval Base where he worked until retirement. He also worked on world-wide aquatic Omega Swiss timing teams, and developed a successful national aquatic timing business.
He loved aquatics and worked for decades as an official at aquatic events, was an Omega Swiss timing expert on the timing team at the first national meet held at the Natatorium in Indianapolis. The local aquatic Hubert Wheatley Classic is named in his honor
Throughout his life, he met challenges “head on.” He worked hard to improve muscle mass. He loved sports and swam and played golf.
With his can-do attitude, Cassie says there was “only one Hubie.” He accepted what he could not do and did what he could do. He was a strong, caring person, and most people never knew the ordeals he had overcome.
County has faced two other major health crises
By Becky Buher, Guest columnist, Apr. 7, 2020
The strange time in which we currently live is scary. Our enemy cannot be seen with the naked eye—it’s the entirely new Coronavirus that has sickened over a million people, killed thousands, has kept us isolated in our homes, and when it is necessary to go out, has kept us separated from one another by a social distance of 6 feet.
Answers will eventually be found to fight this enemy. I pray they will be found soon.
Meanwhile, let’s look back positively at two viruses America has already made it through.
Polio epidemic—For people who survived polio epidemics in the 1950s and are still living today, the current Coronavirus19 pandemic might bring back memories of the isolation, quarantines, iron lungs, medical treatments, and personal battles they endured during the polio epidemics of the 1950s.
Polio is an easily transmitted viral disease that attacks the nervous system. Polio epidemics were common in the United States in the1800s. Vermont had an epidemic in 1894 that spread. Thousands in America suffered from polio during the 1900s. Infants and children were often the most afflicted, but adults caught it, too. Ten percent of all reported cases resulted in death.
In 1921, the 39 year-old-future U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, came down with polio and became partially paralyzed. He later created an estate in Warm Springs, Georgia, as a recovery retreat for polio victims.
However, pursuit to control polio didn’t begin in earnest in the United States until 1938. It took decades of scientific wisdom and research before a practical vaccine giving long-lasting immunity was found.
Emergency polio research fund drives were launched throughout the nation in 1949.
Fear of polio created panic in the 1950s. Many cities and states practiced their own form of social distancing and closed theaters, swimming pools, churches, schools and public meeting places.
Help came in 1953, when Dr. Jonas Salk announced on a national radio show (social media of the day) that he had successfully tested a vaccine.
Locally in Lawrence County, fund drives helped to fund polio research. Examples were found on page 1 of the Bedford Times-Mail newspaper on Jan. 19, 1955. A gas station in Mitchell donated a penny for every gallon of gasoline sold and provided $436.73 for the fund drive—quite an amount for a time when gasoline often sold for about 30 cents a gallon. Local restaurants had “coffee day” fundraisers. Social clubs took up donations.
Also on the front page that day in 1955, a medical forum reported the Salk vaccine held great hope that poliomyelitis (polio), the great killer and crippler of young people would be curbed that year. The vaccine was the first to be developed that offered long-time immunization from polio.
At the forum, Doctors Benham, Branson, Hawkins, Kastings and Woolery spoke of the possible causes and treatments for polio. At the time, no laboratory procedure could definitely identify polio.
The doctors said children with polio should be kept at home as often as possible until the doctor determined it necessary to hospitalize the patient. Readers were reminded that development of the Salk vaccine and improved methods of treatment of polio patients had been the result of dimes and dollars given to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.
The poliovirus vaccine would become widely used and helped to curb polio in the United States. The World Health Organization recommends all children should be vaccinated against polio.
Spanish flu—Lots of people today compare Coronavirus19 with the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. History.com reports “the Spanish flu to be the deadliest in history, infecting an estimated 500 million people worldwide—about one-third of the planet’s population (at the time) and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims, including some 675,000 Americans. Citizens were ordered to wear masks, schools, theaters and businesses were shuttered and makeshift morgues were needed before the virus ended its deadly global march.”
In our current battle, the Coronavirus19 will run its course, medicines will be found to save lives, and immunizations will be created. Like the polio vaccine created in the 1950s, help will be found. Meanwhile, as Bon Jovi’s recent song says “When you can’t do what you do, do what you can.” Honor the medical professionals who ease suffering. Love one another. Be safe. This nightmare will pass, and the sun will come up tomorrow.
NOTICE: For safety, the museum is closed at this time, but you can still enjoy the museum online. Visit our website, http://lawrencecountyhistory.org. Our photo album can be accessed directly at http://lawrencecountyhistory.org/photo-album, and our facebook site is https://www.facebook.com/lawrencecountymuseum?ref=ts
BACKGROUND:
Dr. Jonas Salk announces polio vaccine
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/salk-announces-polio-vaccine
Website that includes a video of Dr. Jonas Salk at a TV interview with Edward R. Murrow about the polio vaccine.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200326/10100644177/67-years-ago-today-jonas-salk-announced-polio-vaccine-did-not-patent-it.shtml