Hospital History and Medical Practice in My Small Town: With Personal Stories of the Author

A true account of how hospital and physicians’ medical practices evolved in a small Michigan town, interspersed with many exciting and humorous anecdotes.

Dr. Albert H. Meinke, Jr. was born on September 26, 1919 in Detroit, Michigan, where he attended the public schools, and graduated in 1937 with honors from Thomas M. Cooley High School. He then attended Albion College in Albion, Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in June 1941. He received his Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in October 1943. That unusual time of year for a graduation came about because the United States had formally entered World War II on December 7, 1941, and the university promptly adopted an accelerated medical curriculum with three full semesters of classes each calendar year. Immediately after graduation from medical school he began a nine-month rotating internship at Edward W. Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan. A few days before the internship was finished, on July 29, 1944, he married Edmere L. Bondesen of Detroit. The next few days were spent in Lansing finishing up hospital clinical records, and on August 2, 1944 he entered active duty in the Army of the United States as a First Lieutenant in the Medical Corps.

After going through an extensive training course for new medical officers at the Army Medical Field Service School at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, he was assigned to the Army School of Tropical Medicine at Moore General Hospital in Swannanoa, North Carolina, where he studied tropical diseases, and also served as a ward officer in the hospital. His patients were soldiers suffering with tropical diseases contracted in the South Pacific, and this led him to believe that he would be treating such tropical diseases later on in his tour of duty.

After this initial training was finished, he was surprised to find that the Army, in its great wisdom, assigned him as a Battalion Surgeon in the U.S. Tenth Mountain Division, --- the only division of ski troops in the entire U. S. armed forces. In this capacity he served front line infantrymen through the Division's entire combat period in Italy, and remained in the Division until it was deactivated in the late fall of 1945.

In late August of 1946, Dr. Meinke moved to Eaton Rapids, Michigan to take over the medical practice of another physician who had been a missionary doctor in Africa and had been recalled during the War to serve Eaton Rapids, because at that time all of the town's able-bodied, practicing physicians were away, serving in the armed forces.

In 1984, at the age of sixty-five, Dr. Meinke retired, and moved with his wife to Kewadin, Michigan into a home on the shore of Torch Lake. There he wrote the book MOUNTAIN TROOPS AND MEDICS, which tells the story of his wartime experiences in the Ski Troops. The book was well received, and is now in its second printing.

Table of Contents and Excerpts TABLE OF CONTENTSABOUT THE AUTHORAUTHOR'S PREFACECHAPTER I EATON RAPIDSCHAPTER II STIMSON HOSPITALCHAPTER III MY ARRIVAL IN TOWNCHAPTER IV MY FIRST OFFICECHAPTER V MY PRACTICE BEGINSCHAPTER VI THE BIG SNOW AND FLOODCHAPTER VII SWITCH TO GROUP PRACTICECHAPTER VIII EARLY CHANGESIN MEDICAL PRACTICECHAPTER IX STIMSON HOSPITAL CONDEMNEDCHAPTER X THE BIRTH OF A NEW HOSPITALCHAPTER XI THE TRANSITIONCHAPTER XII EATON RAPIDSCOMMUNITY HOSPITALCHAPTER XIII REGULATOR PROBLEMSCHAPTER XIV MEDICAL INSURANCECHAPTER XV EATON RAPIDS MEDICAL CLINICCHAPTER XVI OBSTETRIC SERVICESCHAPTER XVII ANESTHESIACHAPTER XVIII EMERGENCY SERVICESCHAPTER XIX THE CORONER SYSTEMCHAPTER XX HOUSECALL ADVENTURESA Dermatology LessonGoose AttackRedecorating Anyone?Bogged DownA Birth in "Squalor City"A Problem in LogisticsThe Tale of a Crazy WomanCHAPTER XXI OFFICE STORIESDermatology to the Resc