Celebrating
a Medical Center's Anniversary and an Emotional Reunion
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By
Steve Gilford
The
rapid growth of defense industries on the West Coast following the
attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, set off one of the largest
migrations in American history. Eager to fill a need for labor that
had outgrown the local labor pool, tens of thousands who had struggled
through the Depression years flooded into the states of Washington,
Oregon, and California. Each person had his or her own story. One
story helps illuminate the time and place when Kaiser Permanente was
being born. Although the story began on a Texas sharecropper's farm
75 years ago, the final chapter was not written until the 60th Anniversary
celebration, held last year, of the first Kaiser Permanente hospital.
Alfonzo
Smith was born in Texarkana, Texas, and raised by his grandparents
on a sharecropped farm. When Mr Smith was about ten years old, he
was playing on his grandfather's mule wagon and slipped down into
the traces. As he fell, he gashed his leg on a piece of steel used
to hold the mules in place, thus ripping a piece of flesh from the
leg.
Even
though the wound wouldn't heal, seeing a doctor was out of the question;
even if his family could afford the fee, there were no doctors around.
Leaving the farm and through a succession of jobs, he continued to
bandage his leg to keep it clean and always had to live with the pain.
In early
1940, he left Fort Worth and joined what was already a growing flow
of emigrants from parts of America with high unemployment to "The
Golden State," where the jobs were. Although he had been doing
heavy work for more than ten years, the Army looked at the ulcer on
his leg and classified him as 4-F, the lowest rating. He was able
to get a job on a railroad track maintenance crew, working for the
Western Pacific Railway in the Sacramento area, despite his weakened
leg and the pain. Even in the hot California Central Valley summer,
few knew of the constant throbbing pain from the ulcer he kept hidden
under homemade bandages.
Cooler
weather and the chance for better pay drew Mr Smith to the San Francisco
Bay Area. He'd heard that the Kaiser Shipyards were hiring and that
African Americans could get jobs there.
After
Mr Smith had established himself in his new job on a cleanup crew
in Yard Two, he decided to see if the Permanente Health Plan could
do anything for his ulcerated leg. He was referred to a dermatologist
at the Oakland hospital who sent him to a surgeon.
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Photo by Tom Debley
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Mr
Smith shares stories with Dr Pearl while looking at a photograph
of the old wartime Oakland hospital in the KP newspaper.
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"My
eyes opened wide when he said he could take care of it, because it
had been a problem for such a long time." With the newly improved
blood supply, the ulcer that hadn't healed in all those years soon
vanished.
I asked
Mr Smith if he remembered the name of the doctor who had done the
surgery. Without the slightest hesitation he answered, "Dr Grant."
When I was surprised that he remembered the name so clearly, Mr Smith
explained, "He was such a wonderful person. I had never really
seen a white person treat a black person so well."
Mr Smith
regretted that he had never had the opportunity to tell Dr Grant how
much he appreciated the treatment he'd received and what a difference
it had made in his life.
In late
September in a park across from the Oakland medical center, in a large
tent filled with music, good food, and a crowd of past and present
Kaiser Permanente employees celebrating 60 years of medical care,
the two men were reunited. They hugged and laughed together. That
day, Mr Smith also met and shared his story with another surgeon,
Robert Pearl, MD, now TPMG Medical Director. As they looked at photographs
of the original hospital, Mr Smith pointed to a window on the first
floor and said to Dr Grant, "Your office was right there."
"You're
right," said Dr Grant, smiling broadly, "That was it."
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Photo by Tom Debley
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Mr
Smith and Dr Grant meet again.
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Another
Permanente physician standing nearby said incredulously, "You
can remember where your office was?" "I ought to,"
Dr Grant replied, "I was there for 40 years."
Meeting
again brought up so many pleasant memories for both men that they
found themselves holding onto each other's hands as they reminisced
about their shared experiences nearly 60 years before. At that time,
Dr Sidney Garfield had just founded the medical care program and was
determined to make the care as personal as possible. The story of
Donald Grant, MD, and Al Smith is an indication that he succeeded.
©2002
Steve Gilford, Sageprod@aya.yale.edu
