Our cousin’s name is Leon Loy. He is 67 years of age. He was admitted into Booneville in 1956 for four months. (Admitted in August and discharged in November). He was 16 years old when he was sent there. He got very sick so the local Doctor administered a TB test that they assumed to be positive and a chest x-ray that showed he had fluid in his lungs. Leon said that everyone that was admitted had to undergo a test where they would run a tube down your nose and throat to take samples to test. He stated that for the first seven day he was he had to drink a labeled bottle of solution every morning. He wasn’t sure what it was but everyone had to drink it the first week there. After vigorous testing they found out that he did not have TB. The fluid on his lungs were caused by a scar on his lung that developed fluid which made him sick, however, they kept him there anyway, did the surgery to remove the scar, fluid and continued to make him take the TB medication everyday. This consisted of six pills around 8am every morning. While he was there, they would x-ray him; take blood and other testing to make sure he was getting better. He said that everyone had to have some sort of testing done everyday. They never had the same nurse because they rotated them throughout the hospital for sanitation purposes. Because of this he didn’t remember any specific names. There was a man’s ward, women’s ward and children’s ward. They were not allowed to interact with each other. They were all in semi-private rooms. He shared a room with the same man the whole time he was there but doesn’t remember his name. The six pills in the morning were the only medicine that was given unless you were on an I.V. drip and then they would have to change out the drips.

He stated that they also pretty much shut the place down during the night. He said that there would be maybe two or three nurses on each floor in case something went wrong. They were not allowed to go to the cafeteria; the food was always brought to their rooms. He stayed on the second floor and that is where they kept patients that were getting better, misdiagnosed but couldn’t leave or the patients that had surgery to remove the illness. If you were able to, you could walk around the area in the halls were you were kept but you couldn’t roam around freely. The patients were allowed to go outside for fresh air and they were monitored while they were there. The staff was very strict and stayed on a tight schedule. There were never any written rules regarding what day visitors come to see friends and family but he said that everyone pretty much came on Saturdays. If our were doing okay but not well they would give you a four hour pass and if pretty well healed a day pass where you could leave the hospital grounds to spend time with whoever was there to see you. Most of the people went to the lake that is or was very close to the hospital and had picnics and things of that sort.

Leon stated he does believe that they waited until lockdown at night to transport the deceased out so that other patients would not get discouraged. He stated that you could hear things rolling up and down the halls but there was no way to tell exactly what it was. He said that it was a peaceful place at the time and that they tried to make your stay as comfortable as possible while you were there. He said that he had not heard any rumors about people being brought there against there will, but that he was only allowed on the second floor so he said that they may have or could have done that, keeping it hush-hush from the other patients. There was some suspicious ways about the Doctors but he never knew what if anything they were hiding from these patients. When he was let go in November, for the next year and a half, he had to go to back every month for more tests to make sure that he was still okay and they would give you a bag full of medicine (the same six pills every morning) to last until the next month. It has been fifty years since he was there. After all that time after retiring from his job, he applied for a position at a local school and had to take the TB test again. His skin test showed positive but yet again he didn’t have it. This was in 2001. After running a battery of tests they are still stumped as to why after all these years he still shows positive on his skin test. Something to think about!!!