MONDAY, SEPT. 24, 1951
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE THREE
By JERRY RENNER
Watkins Hospital Had Its Start On Small Island In Kaw River
If you are a freshman student, you will probably wonder what will happen to you if you get sick. Back in 1904, when K.U. had no hospital, a boy stricken with smallpox was denied admittance to the city hospital.
Some "civic" townspeople carried him to a log cabin on a nearby island in the Kaw river where a friend left food for him on a stump each day.
But today, that isn't going to happen to you. That unknown boy started a movement which finally culminated in the building of one of the finest medical institutions in the state—Watkins Memorial hospital.
Mrs. J. B. Watkins presented the Watkins Memorial hospital, dedicated to her husband and to maintaining student health, to the University in 1931.
Five doctors and 12 nurses with various other persons make up a total personnel of more than 50 individuals. The staff includes full time general physicians, laboratory technicians, physical therapists, a pharmacist, psychiatrist and a dietitian.
This building includes a clinic, laboratories, x-ray department, pharmacy, physical therapy department, a surgery unit and 62 hospital beds.
An outstanding service of Watkins Memorial hospital is the 5-year-old physical therapy department, the only one of its type in this area. A consultant comes from the medical center in Kansas City, Kan., each Thursday to confer with the full time physical therapists at Watkins hospital.
Polio cases are handled at Watkins hospital unless the patient requires a respirator. Then he is taken to the medical center. When he has recovered, he is returned to Watkins hospital for physical therapy treatments
Patients suffering from dislocations, fractures, nerve injuries or simple sprains and strains get treatment with massage, light, heat electricity, therapeutic exercise, and baths.
The surgery unit is another outstanding service offered by the hospital. Although there are no surgeons on the staff, patients needing surgery may use the operating facilities.
Students may call in their own family doctor, or if he is too distant, may procure a surgeon in Lawrence. Most common diseases treated at Watkins hospital, however, are colds, stomach upsets, sprains and injuries.
If the hospital were to maintain qualified surgeons, specialists or special nurses, the operating cost of the institution would increase the health fee to all students with the benefit going to only a few.
Appendectomies, tonsillectomies
2 Med Grants Set Up Here
Two medical scholarship and research funds honoring a pioneer Lawrence family were established here recently, it was announced by Irvin Youngberg, secretary of the University Endowment association.
The Paul Laptad scholarship of $500 for medical students was provided by the will of a sister, the late Pearl L. Laptad. In Miss Laptad's memory, two of her sisters, Mrs.Coskie Carroll and Miss Evadne M. Laptad, both of Tucson, Ariz. each have given $500 for the Peter and Agnes Laptad fund for medical research.
Pearl L. Laptad was educated in the Lawrence schools and taught in rural schools before turning to nursing in 1901. After several years as supervisor of nurses at the old Simmons hospital here, she became head of the department of nursing
Peter and Agnes Laptad, the parents, were Lawrence pioneers.
at the K.U. school of medicine in Kansas. Late in turn to join health management work with the Kansas State board of health and the American Red Cross.
She lived in Tuscon from 1934 until her death last year.
and other minor operations are easily arranged and performed without extensive cost to either the patient or the student body.
Another service carried on by the hospital staff is a fairly complete physical examination for each new student. Also all faculty members and food handlers at University-controlled houses receive annual chest x-rays.
In addition to these special services Watkins Memorial hospital handles more than 200 cases a day. This is an average of 6 calls a year per student with more than 85 per cent of the student body reporting at least once during the year.
The average stay for each patient accepted at the hospital is 4 days with a cost to the hospital, but not to the student, of about $12 a day.
Who pays for the terrific operating costs? Administering to 200 patients a day nine months a year involves a great amount of money. In addition to this there are special services of the pharmacist, technicians, the dietitian and the psychiatrist, to say nothing of the clerical and maintenance staff.
Watkins Memorial hospital is supported solely by the students' health fee and provisions from Mrs. Watkins' estate. The hospital receives no state support.
Perhaps you are wondering what hospitalization costs. It involves the
initial health fee of $10 plus $2 each day spent in the hospital. Charges for drugs and other supplies are at cost plus a slight handling charge. In addition, Watkins hospital is a member of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield association.
Although only enrolled students are eligible for hospital benefits, the families of married students and faculty members are admitted when there are facilities. Unlike students, they pay for all services which they receive.
Clinic hours are from 8 to 12 p.m. and 2 to 5 p.m., Monday to Saturday noon. Visiting hours are from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 8 p.m. except during the winter cold epidemic when students are asked not to visit their friends.
Watkins Memorial hospital began with a sick boy in a log cabin on an island in the Kaw river. Today University students have the finest facilities known to medical science dedicated to the maintenance of their health.
Miss Margaret Habein, dean of women, and Paul W. Gilles, assistant professor of chemistry, were discussion leaders at a meeting of the Wesley Foundation, Methodist student organization, Sunday evening at the First Methodist church.
Habein, Gilles Speak To Wesley Group
Professor Gilles discussed Christian nonconformity with one group, and Dean Habein discussed "Problems the student faces and how to meet them" with the other group.
Student Duelling Returns To Campuses In Germany
In the friendly "scar-producing" duel, only certain types of blows are allowed. The men wear arm guards and throat protectors.
Beer is often poured over the duelling wound to produce a slight infection and increase the size of the scar.
Heidelberg, Germany—(U.P.)-Student duelling has returned to Germany despite a post-war ban, university authorities report.
Among the duelling equipment found in the raided fraternities police found a new and unusual referee's instructions. Previously the referee had only asked the men to fight fairly. The new instructions read:
Duelling is being urged by the old university graduates, many of whom wear the three or four inch scar on their cheeks. They have insisted that the new fraternity member has a uniform. In two cases the students in the fraternity have split with the grads and lost their fraternity houses.
At Goettingen University, police raided fraternity houses after authorities suspected duelling. They picked up dozens of foils and sabers but were unable to prosecute because they could not prove the students actually duelled with them.
The scarred cheek again has become a mark of courage and honor. Students reported university fraternity men have been ordered by their officers to practice duelling secretly once a week and prepare for possible challenges.
A member of a duelling fraternity may be called on to fight two kinds of duel. Most are "friendly," involving a brother fraternity member, interested only in gaining the prized sear.
Weekly practice sessions are guarded by underclassmen and the weapons, masks and arm guards are kept hidden.
Occupation authorities first banned the sport because it was practiced by aristocratic fraternities from which the elite of the army officer corps was selected. It was thought to promote German militarism and nationalism.
The duels are held in secrecy either at a secluded country spot or in the attic of the fraternity.
University authorities continued the duelling ban and fraternities allowed to organize had to promise not to duel. Since then the ban has been increasingly evaded.
Eldridge Pharmacy
Drugs, Sundries, Fountain,
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Agency for Mixture No. 79
701 Mass. Phone 999
Unchanged Prices Hold For KU Sports
Ticket prices to University athletic events will remain the same throughout the current year. They will not be affected by the recent government action of removing price controls from tickets to sports affairs held by tax supported schools.
"The University has already planned its budget and printed tickets so it will be unnecessary for us to make a change at this time," assured Earl Falkenstien, athletics business manager.
In addition to sports events, the new exemption also applies to entertainment staged by public institutions. However, tickets sold by privately supported schools still remain under price control.
January records of the VA show that 871 persons contributed time to the volunteer program at Wadsworth VA Center. They contributed 3427 hours.
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