A new hospital just opened next to our subdivision this week. Fittingly, during my recent research, I read about the first hospitals in Anniston, AL, where I was born. This account from Annie’s Town Revisited: A Picture History of Anniston, AL by Tee Morgan was amazing! Oh, how times have changed. She writes this account of a patient’s stay at the old Garner Hospital:
“In an entry in the diary of Maximillian B. Wellborn on February 22, 1940, he writes of his surgery: ‘I stayed in the hospital for nine days & he (Dr. Hugh Gray) dressed it every day & when I went home 3 or 4 more times. Expenses at the hospital $77.95 which includes room (private with bath) $7.50 a day, operating room $10.00, medicines & etc. $2.95. The room was good & the food too. So I have only kind words for Garner Hospital. Dr. Gray’s fee $150.00. Mutually agreeable.”