Throwback Thursday – 24 NOV 2022 MAJOR Walter Reed

 

Yellow Jack:

How Yellow Fever Ravaged America

and

Walter Reed Discovered Its Deadly Secrets 

 

by John R. Pierce (Author), James V. Writer (Author)

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The end of a scourge

“The prayer that has been mine for twenty years, that I might be permitted in some way or some time to do something to alleviate human suffering, has been answered!“
–Major Walter Reed, writing to his wife, New Year’s Eve, 1900

As he wrote to his wife of his stunning success in the mission to identify the cause of yellow fever and find a way to eradicate the disease, Walter Reed had answered the prayers of millions. For more than 250 years, the yellow jack had ravaged the Americas, bringing death to millions and striking panic in entire populations. The very mention of its presence in a city or town produced instant chaos as thousands fled in terror, leaving the frail, the weak, and the ill to fend for themselves.

Yellow Jack tracks the history of this deadly scourge from its earliest appearance in the Caribbean 350 years ago, telling the compelling story of a few extraordinarily brave souls who struggled to understand and eradicate yellow fever. Risking everything for the cause of science and humanity, Reed and his teammates on the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Board invaded the heart of enemy territory in Cuba to pursue the disease–and made one of the twentieth century’s greatest medical discoveries. This thrilling adventure tells the timeless tale of their courage, ingenuity, and triumph in the face of adversity.

The Legacy of Major Walter Reed 

Major Walter Reed, a physician by training, must have had a curious mind beyond just medicine.  His curiosity and investigative nature allowed him to leave a legacy that impacted the world of medicine but most of all the world around him.  His findings allowed the Panama Canal to be completed.

Major Walter Reed Conquers Yellow Fever

 

 

Major Reed died in building 58 on November 23, 1902. In 1900 Walter Reed led the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Board that documented the mosquito transmission of Yellow Fever, proved the existence of the first viral disease in man and was the first research group to get informed consent from its subjects. This building served as a hospital on the installation then known as Washington Barracks. Walter Reed General Hospital, named in his honor, opened its doors to patients transferred from this building on May 1, 1909.

 

Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Run, Don’t Walk:

The Curious and Courageous Life

Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center 

Paperback

by Adele Levine

ABOUT THE BOOK:

M*A*S*H meets Scrubs in a sharply observant, darkly funny, and totally unique debut memoir from physical therapist Adele Levine.
 
In her six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Adele Levine rehabilitated soldiers admitted in worse and worse shape. As body armor and advanced trauma care helped save the lives—if not the limbs—of American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, Walter Reed quickly became the world leader in amputee rehabilitation. But no matter the injury, physical therapy began the moment the soldiers emerged from surgery.
 
Days at Walter Reed were intense, chaotic, consuming, and heartbreaking, but they were also filled with camaraderie and humor. Working in a glassed-in fishbowl gymnasium, Levine, her colleagues, and their combat-injured patients were on display at every moment to tour groups, politicians, and celebrities. Some would shudder openly at the sight—but inside the glass and out of earshot, the PTs and the patients cracked jokes, played pranks, and compared stumps.
 
With dazzling storytelling, Run, Don’t Walk introduces a motley array of oddball characters including:  Jim, a retired lieutenant-colonel who stays up late at night baking cake after cake, and the militant dietitian who is always after him; a surgeon who only speaks in farm analogies; a therapy dog gone rogue; —and Levine’s toughest patient, the wild, defiant Cosmo, who comes in with one leg amputated and his other leg shattered.
 
Entertaining, engrossing, and ultimately inspiring, Run, Don’t Walk is a fascinating look into a hidden world.

 

 

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Images of America – Fort Myer is a pictorial chronicle of the first one hundred years of history containing over two hundred photographs, maps, and images.  Beginning in the 1860s and carrying through the 1960s it provides a view of what was over time.  An autographed copy of the book can be purchased at BUY THE BOOK.