House Calls

Keith (LeRoy and Glen’s older brother) and Lloyd Walls. This picture was taken a few years after Keith recovered from pneumonia during the cold winter of 1940. 

Photo by

  
Margaret Walls  

Written by 
Lloyd Walls 
 

In 1940 we had a bad winter with some big snows and real cold weather. Keith, our oldest child, was just over one-year old when he got pneumonia in January of 1940. There was a big snow on the ground most of the time and it was bitterly cold. The weather stayed real bad through all of January and February.

In those days most of the doctors would make house calls day or night regardless of weather or distance. Dr. Edens was our family doctor. He made house calls and usually charged $10 per trip. He came out three times in about that many days, but Keith didn’t get any better. That was when sulfa drugs were new and long before penicillin. Dr. Edens had used sulfa for adults but hadn’t for little children and was hesitant to try it. On his last trip out he started giving them to Keith. But still the next day Keith was no better or maybe even worse. The roads had gotten worse and on his last trip out, Dr. Edens barely made it.

Dr. Hogg was a young doctor who had only been in Cabool for a few months. We had never met him but I called him about coming out, and he said that he thought he could get there and he certainly would try. Dr. Hogg carefully chose the safest roads going about 15 miles each trip. It was nine miles the way we usually went to town.

On Dr. Hogg’s first visit he told us that Keith had about a 50-50 chance of pulling through. He said Dr. Edens had done the right thing by giving the sulfa but had just about waited too long. Dr. Hogg came out 15 times in 18 days and through his efforts and the Grace of God, Keith made it. For his life-saving services and his 15 trips through the snow, Dr. Hogg charged us $75.

It won’t surprise you to know that my wife and I will be forever grateful to Dr. Hogg.

12/31/1999