Date: Fri 05-Jul-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

Benton-Egee-history-medicine

Full Text:

Newtown Remembered - A House Call To A Former Town Physician

with cuts

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

Dr Benton Egee established his general medical practice in Newtown in 1935 -

two years before antibiotics came on the market. He regularly traveled across

the 400 miles of dirt roads to make house calls - mostly to farm families -

and was concerned with not only the physical, but also the psychological and

emotional health of all his patients.

"You got to know a family very well," said Dr Egee, who now lives in

Southbury. "You delivered the kids. [Family members] had serious illnesses,

you treated them, and watched them get better. You got very close."

And by seeing what the home was like, the doctor was able to form a more

complete picture of the situation. Often the impression was different than

what he might get in his office, he said.

Dr Egee graduated from Philadelphia Medical School. He remembered having

passed through Newtown one beautiful Easter Sunday when he was traveling to

Maine for vacation. "After school, I took a week to look in Newtown. I wanted

a small town where they needed a doctor because, as I said, I was broke," he

said.

A notice ran in The Bee when he opened his practice, but the doctor never

promoted his business in print because at that time it was considered

unethical for a physician to advertise, he said. "The first week I didn't have

any patients; the second week I had one each day; and then for five or six

days I had no patients," said Dr Egee. "I had had a small amount of cash to

get the business going - but that was gone in five weeks. So I had to charge

things; I didn't have any money. I got credit for three months for oil and

gas."

When business stabilized, the doctor averaged nine house calls a day, which he

usually made in the morning along with hospital calls. From 1 to 3 pm and in

the evening he held office hours. On Thursday, his so-called day off, he went

to the country club for lunch and golf. But there were always patients waiting

in his office when he got back in the afternoon, he said.

"When you had an office in your home, you answered the phone yourself. You

couldn't really get away," he laughed. It was was the custom in those days for

a doctor to have his office attached to his home, he said.

"Back in 1935 when I started, it was Depression time. Most people didn't go to

a doctor unless they were in quite a bit of pain or broke something or were

really quite sick," said Dr Egee. A good percentage of his patients were

farmers. He said it was common to be called out to remedy a dislocated

shoulder after someone had fallen off a piece of farm equipment.

Many men farmed "a couple of acres" and worked in one of three factories in

town: Fabric Fire Hose, the "upper shop" - the Plastic Molding business, and

Curtis Packaging. Working in the factories could be risky business, said Dr

Egee, because some equipment didn't have safety features. "People would lose

fingers," he said.

Dr Egee's general practice also included delivering babies, many at home with

the assistance of a visiting nurse. His first home delivery was of a child in

the Sedor family on Whisconier Hill; his last was Shirley Cole Ferris. After

1941, he delivered babies only in the hospital. "I remember the first delivery

I had was $35 including prenatal visits," said Dr Egee, who estimates he

delivered 500 babies in 25 years.

An advantage to working in a small town was you knew everything that was going

on, said the doctor. When Dr Egee moved to town in 1935, Newtown had a

population of 4,000; in 1965 there were 17,000 residents.

Before Antibiotics

"Before antibiotics you really knew the natural course of diseases. Now, for

instance, the natural course of pneumonia doesn't exist," he said. "Your

function was much different. You established a diagnosis by physical

examination - so a physical examination was much more meaningful than it is

now. With a disease like pneumonia, you observed for complications such as a

collection of puss in the pleural cavity, which would require surgical

intervention."

The natural course of pneumonia would include a specific chill. On the fifth

or seventh day after the chill the patient would have a "crisis", and then his

temperature would come right down and he would feel better, according to Dr

Egee. At that time, there was a 25 percent mortality rate in pneumonia cases,

he said.

Before antibiotics, there were about seven drugs a doctor could use and know

reliably what they would do: digitalis (for various heart diseases), quinine

(for malaria, but there were no cases in this area), arsenic (for syphilis, no

cases here), phenobarbital (a sedative), aspirin, and morphine/codeine. "Other

than that, you could give them something for a fever and keep them

comfortable," he said.

It took some time for Dr Egee to recognize what his role was as a doctor in a

country town. Having studied in a city, the problems he had dealt with were

specific. "Suddenly I was out in practice with a whole new bunch of

complaints," he said. "That's where the art of the practice of medicine came

in. You gave reassurance, made a diagnosis, gave some idea of prognosis, and

told the patient what the treatment would be."

When antibiotics came along, everything changed. "It was wonderful," said Dr

Egee.

The War Years

"My fee then was three dollars for a house call and two dollars for an office

call. Until 1945 - all during the war - we kept our fees the same," he said.

"During World War II, Dr Desmond and I were the only doctors between Danbury

and Bridgeport. So we also covered Easton, Monroe, Brookfield, and the edges

of Bethel. We used to travel 30,000 miles a year... It was just terrible - 8

am to 10 pm. There were no doctors around; they were all in the army. I took a

day off each week, and [Dr Desmond] took one day off - we covered for each

other."

In the 1940s there were quite a lot of artists, painters, and writers living

in town. Artists offer a great deal to a community, said Dr Egee. And acting

on this belief, he tried to get people interested in the concept of

encouraging artists to settle in Newtown. One way would have been to exempt

them from paying taxes. "No one thought much of the idea," he admitted.

As a school board member, Dr Egee tried to introduce art into the schools by

having artwork hung in the buildings. Art was not part of the curriculum at

that time, he said.

In the late 40s, Dr Egee also spearheaded the effort to create a regional

school district which would have included Newtown, Woodbury, and Southbury.

All the communities agreed on the concept because with more students,

curriculum could be expanded to include courses such as French and Latin, he

said. Land was purchased in Southbury between the former pumpkin patch and

town hall, and a superintendent was hired. "And then Newtown said they weren't

going to do it - they didn't want the school in Southbury. So Southbury got

the land," said Dr Egee. "I thought Newtown was a little slow to pick up on

what was going on in the world."

Dr Egee and his wife, Gladys, rented a house in town until they they built a

home across from Hawley School. "We moved in on Pearl Harbor Day. I had three

kids and a big mortgage and got the directive to apply for a commission in the

army," said Dr Egee. "But Dr Desmond and I were exempt from the service

because of community needs."

Eventually, the Egees had five children. "Fortunately, by living in town, they

could all walk to the library, walk to the movies or school activities," said

Dr Egee. "So they developed their own life as kids did in those days. There

were no organized activities like Pop Warner football."

Part Of The Family

Newtown had a "wonderful" state policeman, William Costello, who worked with

Dr Egee when kids were in trouble. "I could talk to him and he'd talk to the

family," said the doctor. "When there were drinking problems with kids in high

school, or if they were speeding in cars. Money was pretty tight then, so a

$25 fine was quite a bit. Or if kids showed signs of depression. We

occasionally had a suicide, and kids got in trouble with the law."

As a community doctor, you "sort of became part of each family," said Dr Egee.

"I never got sued because I had a relationship with the families. I made

mistakes in judgment and diagnosis... But I continued to be their doctor -

they understood."

After 30 years of general practice, Dr Egee turned all his attention to

directing and organizing the emergency room at Danbury Hospital, where he was

chief of staff. By the end of a year he had eight "good doctors from the area"

to cover the emergency room. He covered one shift and acted as director for ER

for the next 13 years.