Sunday Favorites: The Doctors of Palmetto Part 2

Read Part 1 Here.

Only she and her brother Martin survived. The two discussed their options under an old oak tree on their parents’ property. ”What will we do, Olive,“ her brother asked. ”There’s a bag of sweet potatoes in the kitchen,“ she replied.

The family living across the street from The Courters adopted a Seminole boy living with them. Although his name is never mentioned in the book 100 years in Palmetto, by Ruth E. Abel, he was a great help during the pandemic as he knew many all-natural remedies to ease the suffering of those inflicted.

Olive and her brother were also adopted into another family.

No one knew the cause of the epidemic, but it seemed to subside when cold fronts moved in. This inspired a man living far away, Dr. John Gorrie, of Apalachicola, Fla., to invent the first ice machine. Gorrie first received his patent in 1851 using a refrigeration principle still utilized today. His apparatus was initially designed to treat yellow fever patients suffering from high temperatures, according to the Gorrie State Museum website. Using a small amount of water, he cooled compressed air in coils.

Despite his brilliant invention, Gorrie didn’t address the cause of Yellow Fever. While there was never another outbreak in the area comparable to the one in 1888, Yellow Fever did inflict many other towns in Florida causing widespread death. The U.S. government was able to trace the origin of many of these outbreaks to Cuba. Back then, there was no embargo and many U.S. imports, especially in Florida, came directly from Cuba.

In 1900, a Yellow Fever Commission was formed and sent to Cuba. It consisted of four experts including Walter Reed, an army surgeon, and bacteriologist, Dr. John Carroll, Jessie Lazear, a researcher from Europe, and Aristides Agramonte, a Cuban expert on the subject. Of the four, Argamonte was the only one who had survived Yellow Fever and was therefore immune. The others were susceptible to contracting the disease.

Reed had been stationed in Tampa during the outbreak in Palmetto and had known Dr. Porter. Another Cuban doctor, Carlos Finlay, had theorized that Yellow Fever was carried by a mosquito. The commission tested that theory and Lazear and Carroll selflessly offered themselves as human test subjects. Carroll survived, but Lazear perished during testing, according to Abel.

Despite the tragedy, the team proved that Yellow Fever was carried by a grey mosquito with markings that resembled a u-shaped harp on its back. A war was waged on Yellow Fever and within a few years, it was completely eradicated, not just in Florida, but from the entire world.

Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. commemorates the work and sacrifice this team made. They wiped out a disease that had divided so many families and communities over the years. Tune in next week, as we look at another illness plaguing the area and the doctor who addressed it.