Community Corner
Forty Seventh Week, Tuesday's "Medfield Historical Minute"
A little something to read and learn to give you a little break during this time of boredom during isolation due to the Coronavirus Crisis.
A Medfield Historical Minute...
This "Medfield Historical Minute" is brought to you by town historian Richard DeSorgher.
A little something to read and learn to give you a little break during this time of boredom during isolation due to the Coronavirus Crisis. A different "Medfield Historical Minute" will appear each day during the Crisis.
"In 1918, the Medfield State Hospital was especially hard hit by the 1918 Spanish Influenza. Seventy-three employees were ill on one particular day…the rapidity with which the employees became ill presented difficulties in the way of caring for the patients, as well as those ill with the disease, that seemed impossible to overcome. The care of ill patients was also given to healthy patients. The Boston, Danvers, Grafton, Westborough and Worcester State Hospitals sent a number of their graduate nurses to assist Medfield in this great emergency. In addition to the wards, other departments suffered severely…both telephone operators and three of the five clerks became ill, as well as the storekeeper, dietician and matron. The superintendent and two assistants also contracted the disease.
A total of 95 employees were stricken, five of whom died. Three hundred and eight patients contracted the disease with 55 dying."