Memories of the old Lyons Hospital | Rogersville

It has been an condominium sophisticated for several several years but the moment the modest sand stone medical center meant the change between existence and demise for many Hawkins County people. Certainly a multitude of folks were being born inside its walls and by way of the decades several people succumbed to health issues or personal injury and expired there.

Inspite of the endeavours of the Doctor’s Lyons, who dedicated their life to the clinic and their people. It all commenced when Dr. James S Lyons, a graduate Lincoln Memorial College Medical School noticed a excellent need for a contemporary hospital in Hawkins County.

Dr. Lyons experienced been working towards medication in Rogersville given that 1910. In the course of those early days he usually manufactured dwelling phone calls all more than the county on horseback. In 1926 he leased a home on Church Avenue and recognized “Lyons Hospital”. A yr later on he was in a position to order the creating.

Above the a long time the hospital sophisticated grew to involve a lobby, doctor’s places of work, a radiology place, an running area, a nursery, a kitchen/eating space, store rooms and 13 client rooms. Owing to affected individual superstitions the range on home 13 was switched to place 31.

Fannie Lou Payne labored as a cook in the basement kitchen area from 1926 until finally the hospital closed. Miss Payne would put the food items trays on a dumb waiter ring a bell and deliver them up to the initial floor. Invoice Lyons son of Dr. Henry and grandson of Dr. James remembers viewing the healthcare facility on Sundays when he was 11 a long time old and providing meal trays to the patients.

Bill’s sister Emily remembers acquiring standard Saturday lunches at the hospital with her grandfather when she was a youngster. When Dr. Lyons son Henry finished medical school and his tenure in the military services he joined his father at the medical center. Dr. Henry was in the special healthcare corps that treated Hiroshima victims after the atomic blast.

Though in Med university he achieved and married Eunice Shields a registered nurse who was functioning at Lyons hospital at the time. Other medical professionals who practiced there by means of the decades integrated, Dr. Doty, Dr. Clinton G Lyons, Dr. Connor Lyons, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Goforth, Dr. Henry Burem, and Dr. Gibbons amid others.

The help employees was also long and as a result of the many years provided, Tom Gaines, Vera Webster, Edna Lawson, Rose Ferguson,Annie Williams, Mary Buchanan, Benny Brewer, Mary Self and Joanne Howe, who began doing work there when she was 17. Mrs. Howe assisted in quite a few births at Lyons Medical center.

She remembers just one beginning in specific: “I was encouraging Dr. Connor Lyons during a shipping and delivery and the mother was acquiring a pretty difficult time. She was offering Dr. Lyons a healthy. All of a sudden he exclaimed, Woman if do not lie down and be quiet this infant is going to be born naked!”

The stunned woman calmed down actual quick Howe remembered. She also remembers that there was only one nurse on responsibility all through a change and that Dr. Lyons took in aged clients who could not treatment for on their own.

Some remained there until the conclusion of their lifestyle. Again when Lyon’s Clinic was totally operational, Hawkins County did not have a regular ambulance so Colboch Cost Funeral Home furnished affected person transportation from wrecks and other emergencies.

For the duration of his existence time Dr. James wore quite a few hats. He was not only the operator and main doctor of Lyons Medical center he also served as professional medical director of the Tuberculosis sanatorium at Pressmen’s Home.

In addition Dr. Lyons served as mayor of Rogersville for quite a few several years. At 1 time the Dr. James sent almost each and every infant in Hawkins County. In the course of his medical profession he shipped three sets of triplets and formulated his possess distinctive birthing tactics. If 1 could afford it a 50 dollar deposit was needed per shipping and delivery.

In his early days of practicing medication Dr. Lyons charged 5 pounds a supply. In some cases unusual circumstances happened at the clinic. Dr. Henry Lyons once handled a lady with a unusual situation of rabbit fever (Tularemia) and he also treated a person for a tarantula bite.

Back then bananas arrived in the country on stalks. Even though unloading the stalks at Joe’s Meals Industry on Depot Road the gentleman was bitten by a concealed spider. In the late fifties a person virtually escaped death when he fell out of the barn loft and into a pile of tobacco sticks.

A person of the sticks punctured his armpit and came out as a result of his shoulder. Lyon’s Clinic continued to run until 1959 when the Hawkins County Memorial Hospital was developed on Locust Road. Father and son continued to operate the health care clinic till Dr. James died in 1962.

At the time an office environment phone was $5 and most people today bought their medication at the Corner Drug Retailer. Right after the death of Dr. Henry Lyons in 1970 the practice shut its doorways for very good consequently ending a professional medical legacy that spanned nearly sixty years.

Rodney Ferrell is the former Hawkins County Historian and the author of three books on neighborhood record and tradition. He has also composed a lot of newspaper content articles and can be achieved at [email protected]