“Without Martin Couney I wouldn’t have had a life.” Beth Allen was born premature. At the time of her birth in 1941, there was little hope that a premature baby would live beyond infancy. Some lived for a few hours while other languished in pain for several days, struggling for breath with undeveloped lungs. The common thought was that preterm babies were “genetically inferior” and medical intervention would prolong their inevitable death. These small infants, historically, were cared for at home. Mothers would keep their babies warm in a blanket and do their best to nourish them. Survival depended upon fate. Dr. Martin Couney believed otherwise. Medical intervention was available and all American hospitals had to do was use a medical device called an incubator. When they refused, Couney developed a rather unusual plan.
For 40 years, Couney encouraged people to visit his incubator display filled with premature babies at Brooklyn, New York’s Coney Island. Each baby was placed into an incubator and cared for by nurses and doctors. When successful, the babies gained enough strength to live outside of an incubator and to go home with their parents. For Beth Allen’s parents, and thousands of others, placing their infant on display was a better alternative than permitting them to die without any medical intervention. “The Incubator Doctor” saved thousands of very small lives.
Preemies Left For Dead
Premature babies are generally those born before 37 weeks gestation and weighing less than 3 pounds. Until the mid-20th century, many infants born so small were simply left for dead. Not because no one cared, but because there were no treatments available to help such a small infant get well. Many parents of premature infants were instructed to prepare for a funeral instead of welcoming their newborn home.
When women gave birth to a preterm infant, the only viable treatments were to wrap their baby up in a warm blanket, attempt to feed them, and hope for the best. Often, babies born early lack fully developed lungs and the ability to suck, which makes nursing nearly impossible. Unless they learn how to feed, they simply cannot overcome their illness. Parents had no viable choices in the care for their small bundles of joy. That is until a French doctor visited a chicken farm.
Dr. Stephan Tarnier was intrigued by the incubators that farmers used to keep chicken eggs and young chicks warm. He thought that if humans could adapt the same technology for a preterm infant, they may survive. Inspired, Dr. Tarnier began experimenting with the chicken incubator to use for preterm human babies. His small container regulated an infants environment, somewhat simulating the warmth of a woman’s uterus. French hospitals began using the incubators, or isolettes, in the late-19th century.
Excited by the new medical device, Dr. Pierre Budin, a French pediatrician, expanded upon the new technology. He believed that preterm infants also required breast milk and bonding time with their mothers. This, he advocated, would give the small infants the necessary tools to get well, as long as their bodies were equipped to do so. Again, French hospitals began to implement Dr. Budin’s treatment plans in combination with the isolettes for their smallest patients.
Dr. Budin had a Prussian-born student, Martin Couney, who wholeheartedly believed in the new neonatal treatments for premature babies. For him, it was imperative that medical professionals do as much as they possibly could to improve the survival rates of preemies. If French hospitals were able to implement the new treatment plans, why not the rest of the world? To demonstrate that preemies could survive, Dr. Martin Couney integrated his medical treatments with a popular mode of entertainment of the day; the Freak Show.