University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) Original Hospital's Emergency Room and Trauma Room C
Introduction
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Mississippi’s medical history is a story about progress, race, socioeconomic accessibility, and leadership. These factors are especially clear in the history of the state's flagship medical institution, the University of the Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), home to two events which changed Mississippi history overnight: the death of the NAACP Field Officer and World War II Veteran Medgar Evers, and to the first successful lung transplant, performed by Dr. James Hardy. The two historical events happened on the night of June 11-12, 1963 next door to each other. While Dr. Martin Darton, the physician who treated Evers, was unsuccessful in saving Evers' life, Dr. Hardy’s lung transplant patient lived for eighteen days before dying of kidney failure. The lung transplant was one of many successes; less than a year later, Dr. Hardy and his team completed the first heart transplant in which a heart was transferred from a chimpanzee into a human patient. The significance that the original hospital's ER plays in the framework of Mississippi's medical history is that it was the site of a turning point in medical practice to better serve Mississippi communities. The lung and heart transplants, important surgical "firsts," occurred in Mississippi, establishing UMMC's surgical program's place in medical history. The significance of the original hospital's ER in the social contexts of race and medicine lies in the quality of treatment Evers received. UMMC was segregated before the 1964 the Civil Rights Act led to integration, yet when Evers was treated for his wound, the friend and physician accompanying him to the ER the night of his death said that he received satisfactory care. Located in a part of the original hospital that remains in use today, the Emergency Room and Trauma Room C are not open to the public.
Images
Inisde of Trauma Room A, identical to Trauma Room C in the Original Hospital Emergency Room, where Medgar Evers was pronounced dead. It is now an inventory closet. According to Rick DeShazo's account from his book, Racial Divide in American Medicine, "Albert B. Britton, Jr., MD, a Black physician and friend of Evers, was present at UMMC during efforts to save him and gave high praise to UMMC staff for their medical care and the professional courtesy he received" (2018).
Medgar Evers.
Backstory and Context
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In UMMC's original hospital, the operating rooms served as ad hoc emergency rooms after hours. The original hospital's Emergency Room is located in on the first floor of the present hospital, but it is not open to the general public. It consisted of three Trauma Rooms- A, B, and C- all of which were identical. Although the site is now a space for inventory, Trauma Room C is also the room where Medgar Evers was brought after being gunned down outside his home. Evers’ surgeon, Dr. Martin Dalton, who was assisting Dr. Hardy in the first lung transplant, stepped away from the surgery to treat Evers. According to Dr. Ralph Didlake, the Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at UMMC, no barriers stood in the way of Evers receiving medical treatment at UMMC. In fact, the friend and physician who witnessed Medgar Evers final moments, Dr. Albert J. Britton, Jr., MD, argued that his care was as apt as the conditions allowed (deShazo 2018).
Evers' death was covered extensively by the national press: "Early in the morning of June 12, 1963, a bullet from a rifle ripped through his back, the gunfire awakening his neighborhood and reverberating through the civil rights movement for decades" (The New York Times 2016). An important socioeconomic factor that contributed to Evers' death was the refusal of ambulance services to neighborhoods with majority Black populations. Ambulance policies and availability were governed by segregation laws and morals. As a result, Evers’ body was loaded on a mattress in the back of a neighbor's station wagon. The historical record is inconclusive as to whether Evers could have been saved, though most scholars agree that the delay caused by the lack of ambulance service likely made the difference between life and death.
At the intersection of race and medical history in Mississippi, the night of June 11, 1963, transformed the care that UMMC would contribute not only to all Mississippians, but to all global citizens. Dr. Hardy led Mississippi medical history by successfully performing two transplants within a year of one another: the first lung transplant in 1963 and the first subhuman heart transplant in1964. Hardy's accomplishments cemented Mississippi and UMMC's place in surgical history and transplantation science, which saves lives routinely today.
Medgar Evers' assassination highlighted racial inequities of the state's history, but his death also fueled policies to desegregate institutions to allow more African American doctors to serve the needs of their communities. In the social context of UMMC's maintenance of segregation, racial integration came only in 1965 with the efforts of Dr. Marston, Medical Center Director and Medical School Dean from 1961 to 1965. Dr. Hardy and Dr. Marston reflect the greatness Mississippi is capable of, such as leading medical history in the state and indeed the world while offering more equitable health-related opportunities for all Mississippians. UMMC is leading the healing of the racial divide in Mississippi now, continuing the process that began under the regime of Dr. Marston. The institution's leaders continue to identify and address opportunities to improve the state's healthcare.
Sources
deShazo, Rick. The Racial Divide in American Medicine: Black Physicians and the Struggle for Justice in Health Care. August 1st 2018.
Quinn, Janis. James D. Hardy, Mississippi Encyclopedia. July 11th 2017. Accessed April 9th 2021. http://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/james-d-hardy/.
Quinn, Janis. University of Mississippi Medical Center, Mississippi Encyclopedia. July 11th 2017. Accessed April 9th 2021. http://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/university-of-mississippi-medical-center/.
The New York Times. July 02, 2016. Accessed April 9th 2021. Medgar Evers, Whose Assassination Reverberated Through the Civil Rights Movement (nytimes.com)
Dr. Forbes's class, spring 2021
https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/evers-medgar/