The Four Leading Causes Of The 1930's

After the war and during the early 1930’s there were four leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, pneumonia, and infectious and parasitic diseases including influenza and syphilis. One every twenty Americans were too sick for work or school usually taking approximately ten days for a full recovery, however, people began taking vitamins, insulin, and other nutrients which helped create a longer lifespan for the average American. Even with these factors to consider, the biggest issue was a method of payment for medical treatment. Forty percent of Americans relied on relief and many doctors never saw payment. Hospitals felt financial troubles as unpaid bills doubled and donations fell. With every month hospitals saw fewer and fewer patients.
As poliomyelitis as well as many forms of encephalitis cases increased researchers began finding a variety of new styles of treatment. Vaccine trials began in 1935 on humans before finally being approved by the FDA in 1953. Between the time the vaccines were on trial to when they were finally approved, Franklin D. Roosevelt led one of America’s greatest medical fundraisers for polio victims and their family through the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis’s March of Dimes Campaign in 1938; helping most of those families with medical costs. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a victim of polio himself as well as several of his relatives allowing him to connect with other families and raise money for genetic testing for this terrible condition (“Medicine and Health in the 1930’s: Overview”). Thomas Hunt Morgan started genetic testing in 1934 (“Medicine and Health in the 1930’s: Overview”).X-ray equipment also began to help doctors diagnose diseases and conditions like tuberculosis at an early treatable
It took the young couple approximately a month to finish their voyage to their new homestead. After lots of convincing from Emmaline, CC decided to enroll at the University of Texas Medical School in Galveston, Texas at the age of twenty-five (Hill 14). During his four years of med school CC never missed a lab, class, or post-mortem. CC graduated medical school in 1907.Shortly after graduation, Dr. CC Cooke opened a hospital with Mrs. Alma French in Keene, Texas (Brown interview). Dr. Cooke would make his appointments by horse and buggy 24/7 from 1907-1950. Locals said if Dr. Cooke wasn’t at an appointment or down at the hospital he was catching a nap or a movie at the theater. (Cooke Interview). It was said that once after working on a patient Cooke dozed off driving his buggy home leaving his horses, Larry and Selma, to lead the way home. Dr. Cooke woke to a flooded river that had knocked the bridge he normally crossed to get home. He realized that Larry and Selma had saved his life (Hill 16). In April of 1917, Dr. Cooke was one of the first Texans to volunteer to assist the RAMC during World War I as part of the medical corps. Cooke worked at a base in Boston as an anesthetist before being sent to England in 1819 to work at the Northwestern Fever Hospital. While working in England,