TheTeton Memorial Hospital is usually an unfamiliar phrase to people in our community today. Some residents might have heard the phrase “the old hospital,” but again some of the people from our community have never heard of this hospital at all. For some reason, people rarely talk about the old hospital, despite the fact it did many things for our community.
The Teton Memorial Hospital delivered many babies, and did many surgeries for people who still live in our community today. In it’s time; the hospital gave many jobs to local residents of Choteau and Teton County, and serviced Teton County for 27 years.
Through my research, I discovered some of the services they offered, aren’t some services that we still offer today, such as bed baths every night. Without this hospital, our community at that time wouldn’t have had the convenience it did.
In 1950, the Teton Memorial Hospital opened for business to offer us their services. The administrator was Opal McGrew, and the business manager was Mary Beck. Mrs. Beck handled all of the insurance, bills, etc. Many resources suggested that Mrs. Beck was there for a very long time. Both of these women had small offices in the hospital.
In the nice, big kitchen downstairs, the food and the daily medicines for different patients were prepared. The medicines and food would be put on trays and lifted up to the nurse’s room on an old fashioned lift that went from the kitchen in the basement to the nurses’ room upstairs.
Dr. Hamilton was one of the first doctors at the hospital. He delivered babies, and even did some life-saving surgeries while he was there. The two main doctors however, were Dr. Crary and Dr. McAuley. These two doctors delivered many babies, and performed many surgeries also, but were at this particular hospital longer than Dr. Hamilton. Though these three doctors performed many surgeries, including C-Sections, Dr. Sexton sometimes came down from Great Falls to do the more difficult surgeries when he was needed.
Another thing that came from Great Falls was blood that was needed for patients, like we still do today. Back then, buses were a main transportation to and from different towns. The blood came down on one of those passenger buses, and was dropped off at the hospital. Sometimes, however, a local emergency blood donor was needed. Someone in the community with the same blood type as the patient would come down as quickly as possible and give blood. I suppose if it was an absolute emergency that’s what we would do today, but now the new hospital keeps a minimal amount of blood, and most of it O positive which usually works for everybody.
One room in the hospital was the delivery room where many local residents today were born. In front of the delivery room was the labor room, which was right next to the front door. All the surgeries were performed in the surgery room, which was off to the side of the labor room. When you walked in the front door, to your left would be the main desk to check in and everything. To the left of the main desk was the nursery room, where all the babies were kept. Naturally, the mother’s rooms were right across from the nursery. Down a long hall was where all of the other patient’s rooms were.
On each shift of the day, there was always a registered nurse and usually a couple nurses’ aids working. Marietta Hodgskiss came to Choteau in 1954 because she wanted to work in a small town. Before coming to Choteau, Mrs. Hodgskiss worked at the Montana Deaconess hospital in Great Falls, in the delivery room. After two years, she graduated from that hospital. One of the nurses’ aids was Donna Alzheimer in 1969 when she came back to the hospital after being the first lab tech at the hospital. Her job as a nurses’ aid involved many things. When she was put in the delivery room her job was to take the baby from the doctor and weigh it, wash it up, and even put the eye drops in. All the standard things they still do today.
In this hospital they never used to throw anything away like we do today. An important part of the nurses’ aid’s job was to sterilize all the equipment including gloves, thermometers, instruments for surgeries, needles, and even syringes. When they sterilized, they used to wash everything, and then put everything in a big round machine full of hot water, called an autoclave. All the hot water would kill the germs, therefore sterilizing everything. Some of the nurses’ aids, amazingly enough, also had to sharpen dull needles once in a while.
Before Mrs. Alzheimer was a nurses’ aid in 1969, she was the first lab tech at the hospital. In a small lab across from the delivery room, she would run tests of things we still test for today. However there were no tests for cholesterol, cancer, or even heart problems back in those days. The closest thing to those tests was when she looked at slides of blood cells under a microscope. If there was a high number of a certain cell she would maybe suspect leukemia or a very bad infection. Mrs. Alzheimer however, did do blood counts and the patient’s analysis. She also had a Bunsen burner to do blood sugars. After Mrs. Alzheimer, Thelma Nauck worked at the hospital as the second lab tech. The x-ray machine was also in the lab, though the doctors read the x-rays in a small x-ray room, off to the side of the lab.
The Teton Memorial Hospital added on some more rooms to it’s building around 1960. Years previous, they gathered money for it by many generous donors in the community. Their goal was to reach $100,000 for the changes. In 1977 the Teton Memorial Hospital closed, and Teton Medical Center was finished. Although I don’t know why it closed because my resources suggested it was a perfectly good building. Looking back on it, Mrs. Alzheimer and Mrs. Hodgkiss both agree that everyone in the hospital got along well and they were all pretty good friends.
In that same year of 1977, the building of the Teton Memorial Hospital was sold to Anne Bouma McDonald’s family. The Bouma’s used the building as a private religious school for her family to attend. The school did not last very long though. Now, the building is a store for religious books, and it is called Gospel Mission Books. In the back lot you can still see all the equipment of a playground. However, if people remember it at all, hopefully now they remember it as the Teton Memorial Hospital, an important part in Choteau’s history.
By: Lexie Sullivan
Alzheimer, Donna, personal interview, 9/13/08. Hodgskiss, Marietta, personal interview, 9/9/08. Curtis, Joyce, personal interview, 9/8/08. Clark, Christi, personal interview, 9/8/08. Acantha, The Choteau Acantha, 1956, Jan.19, No. 39, V.62, pg. 1&5.