america s first cooperative hospital ioney oney mad doctors dr michael shadid director tells the facts to 9 L stowe stow e of the true story magazine A story that should interest interest every resident of san juan county at this time when cooperative health program Is being promoted CONSIDER THESE FACTS two and a half million people in the united states are sick today and every day four of every ten of these sick people did not see a doctor last year three and a half billion dollars were spent for medical care last year yet only about one hundred million were spent for prevent preventive ve medical care one third of the doctors time lime is wasted waiting for patients four american doctors in everyl every ten fail to keep up with scientific advances in their fields unnecessary illness and death cost ten billion dollars each year dollars for every family in the united states KINGSLEY ROBERTS M D director bureau of cooperative medicine at five in the morning MyrA MyrdA Wilson awoke with a twinge of pain and she knew that she was about to become a mother again for the third time but this time she afraid she moved toward the ordeal with serenity and confidence she felt happy almost gay this one would not be born in the downstairs bedroom off the kitchen with only old mrs gitch ery whose nose was always running whose nails were permanently dirty to help her this one was going to be born in a hospital and not in just in any hospital where doctors she know would handle her casually perhaps roughly and charge so much that they would probably have to the farm to pay the bill their own hospital where new the doctor where the nurses were like her own family famil Y for only thirty dollars and it would be less if she went home a day earlier the money was already saved her egg money tucked away m in an old id tobacco can on awaya the high shelf shel f beside the cook book she wakened joe her husband 1 and in a few minutes he was downstairs sloshing slashing shing water on his face and then he was in the yard swearing at the car he always swore when he had to crank it on a cold morning but she could tell by his voice that he was in a sweet mood meanwhile she dressed herself slowly carefully carefully care full y and packed the small suit case remembering mem bering what the doctor had told her to bring with her their hospital was at elk city thirty nine miles away g ride for a wom tl abbout AS bout to become a mot mother herBut but there was no panic in in her movements no hysteria none of the terror that had marked the coming of the other children every three weeks for the past four months joe had taken her in and the doctor had examined her told her what to eat and how to exercise and had explained the science of having babies for the first time she understood the beauty and mystery of birth joe had banked the seat with pillows and blankets so she was fairly comfortable as the car rattled out of the yard for the thirty dollars she would have the baby and after that ten wonderful days in bed with nothing to do but to get strong again this time she have to drag herself out of bed as she had done in the past and half broken with pain and weariness clean and i cook and scold and do all she had done before in addition to taking care of the new baby from my ottice window in the community hospital I 1 saw the car arrive and I 1 knew what myra wilson was thinking what she was feeling I 1 have been a doctor in western oklahoma for more than twenty five years and I 1 know my people I 1 knew what it meant to her to be able to come to a hospital and bear her child in cleanliness and comfort guarded at every point by the skill of modern medical science jn entering the door myra and her child had tripled the odds in their f favor avor childbearing at home under crude and unsanitary conditions kills each year thousands of mothers hundreds of thousands of babies where the women survive many go through life crippled by so called woman troubles which expert medical attention could have prevented it is one of the great crimes of our modern civilization liza tion in most cases babies are delivered at home because the cost of having them in a hospital is too high only well to do people can afford it the price without prenatal and postpartum post care is is never less than one audred dollars and I 1 knew an instance where a bill was rendered three thousand dollars less t en pe per r cen cent t of the children who ome come nto into the world in the united states each year are born in hospitals yet here was myra wilson wife of a poor cotton farmer entering a hospital door for the payment of thirty dollars she was to receive the care and solicitude hitherto reserved for rich mens wives I 1 picked up the telephone and ordered the delivery room made ready A bed in a semiprivate semi private ward had been reserved for her for some time myra and joe passed through the waiting room which today as on all other days was crowded with men women and children three girls in a corner were nibbling pinon nuts A woman with a rooster in her lap was slapping it gently on the beak to be continued next week