WAVERLY SANITARIUM SERIES

The early stages are relatively painless, easy to pass off as a bad cold.Įxperimental treatments and operations were performed, and much was discovered about treating TB. It is no wonder that around 60,000 people died here. It was reported in an article found on this Waverly Hills Sanitarium page on, that of the patients who were admitted to this TB treatment hospital, 25% were in the first or early stages of the disease, 27% were in the second stage and a whopping 47% were in its advanced, last stages. While these methods were effective for some patients, many others died in the hospital, despite the best efforts of the medical staff. After it was discovered that ultraviolet light could kill the bacteria, the hospital offered this as well.

A kitchen, barber shop, laundry, dentist, library, etc., were available on site.īecause there were no antibiotics invented yet, the standard treatment basically revolved around natural cures: lots of rest, good diet, plenty of sun and fresh air, with the goal of boosting the infected patient’s natural defenses. The Sanitarium was a self-contained city, offering everything a person needs. A major effort was made to make the public aware of the first signs of the disease, which if caught early, could be defeated. So in 1926, a five story, 500 bed, state-of-the-art hospital opened. It was decided that a much larger hospital dedicated to the fighting of this horror should be added to the existing facility. It is said that in this time more Americans died from TB than died in WW1. In 1910, a small, 140 bed Sanitarium, known as Waverly Hills, was opened outside of Louisville on an isolated hilly area, where fresh air blew freely, and a caring staff tried their best to nurse the afflicted back to health.ĭespite this, the white plague swept over the population, and by the 1920s, TB outbreaks overwhelmed this small facility. TB also sometimes infects bones, the brain, the eyes and larynx. This insidious disease named the “white plague” destroys the lungs, slowly suffocating people who catch it. Unfortunately, the climate and water/land geography qualities of Louisville, Kentucky, offered the perfect conditions to grow the TB bacteria, which resulted in whole families coming down with this very contagious disease, which was in its heyday from 1910-1936, It was still a threat up until the discovery of the vital antibiotic which eventually defeated TB. Other staff who caught TB and died here are still on duty! A staff member with a broken heart committed suicide. While many of these structures have been lost, others have found new uses as housing developments, medical facilities, and even museums.TB patients are still here, hoping to get better.

WAVERLY SANITARIUM SERIES

Located away from local urban populations, these self-sufficient medical complexes became isolated communities containing a series of buildings that provided housing for patients and staff, medical and administrative offices, utility plants, and other uses. At these sites, consumptives spent years seeking a cure through prescribed regimens of fresh air and sunlight. These sanitariums mark the beginning of government-funded campaigns to address tuberculosis. State and local anti-tuberculosis organizations led social movements to improve sanitary conditions through anti-spitting laws and health regulations encouraged consumptives to seek medical treatment and persuaded state and local governments to create a network of state and county hospitals that isolated consumptives. Bacteriologist Robert Koch’s germ theory in 1882 provided better insight into the disease, and lent itself to explaining the spread of tuberculosis.

Waverly sanitarium