Dr. H. A. Stafford, Sr., was the long-time Medical Director of the Washington Parish Health Unit. I learned this from Cindy Stafford Knight, his granddaughter. Dr. Hollis, Sr., was her paternal grandfather. And her father Dr. Hollis Ancil Stafford, Jr., a family medicine doctor, was for many years the practicing physician for the Washington Parish Health Unit. He became the Medical Director after his father's retirement.
While most of us picture the Health Unit on the Southeast corner and the Northwest corner of Bene Street and what my mother called Railroad Avenue, it had its start near the old jail on Pearl Street. More on that, in a moment.
Many local nurses spent a lifetime with the Health Unit, providing our community with excellence in healthcare. All of them were Registered Nurses with substantial hospital nursing experience which was necessary in light of their significant duties - administering free immunizations, tuberculosis screening, free allergy shots, penicillin injections, rabies vaccinations, PKU tests for newborns, and blood draws. This work was on top of the home visits and the vision and hearing screenings for the schools.
And on-site, there were a myriad of clinics at the Health Unit which were provided to the public free of charge; these included Sick Baby Clinic, Well Baby Clinic, EPSDT (Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment) Clinic for Medicaid children, and a Maternity Clinic.
Dr. William Russell McGehee provided services in the free Maternity Clinic. And the nurses also made home visits. For example, patients diagnosed with tuberculosis were provided free medications and screenings for their family members, but if they didn't pick up said medicine, the nurses made home visits, delivering the meds and checking on the patients.
While I wasn't able to get the names of everyone who served, I want to acknowledge those that I personally know or knew - Cindy Stafford Knight, whose nursing career spanned 30 years at the Health Unit; Cindy's husband the late William E. Knight, III, who was a supervisor, retiring after 33 years of service in the Environmental Health Services Department of the Health Unit; Katherine Kennedy, the supervisor who hired Cindy; Louise Miller Dill, a nurse at the Health Unit from 1973 to 1976; Kay Orman, the secretary who was instrumental in organizing the day-to-day operations of the Health Unit; Vera Meade, a social worker; Velma Fussell, a supervisor at the Health Unit; Marguerite Lipani, a long-time Health Unit nurse; Lela Knight, public health nurse; and Connie Barber Smith, a supervisor at the Health Unit.
With public health medicine in her genes, Cindy Stafford Knight, who began work as a nurse at the Health Unit when it was located on the Southeast corner of Bene Street, informed, "We had eighty-five home health patients." A lot by any standard, for any healthcare provider.
My friend Louise Miller Dill explained, "We received referrals from various hospitals in Washington Parish and Tangipahoa Parish, Children's Hospital, the VA hospital, and the Handicapped Children's Clinic in Amite. Home visits were made to address the needs of newly diagnosed diabetic patients, newborns, patients with wound care needs, urinary catheter management, occasional administration of intravenous medication, and occasional nasogastric intubation for nutritional needs.”
She added, “Many homes in my district of the parish had no running water or indoor bathrooms, and some had no electricity which created a challenge when addressing wound care needs and general hygiene needs. Sometimes road access was a challenge because many had no paved road access - especially in the Hackley Blackjack area (as it was called then). Regardless of poor road access, I only experienced getting stuck in the mud once."
I sort of wondered if the weight of the equipment and supplies she carried, as a nurse, might have been a factor. Louise Miller Dill recalled, "My first supervisor at the health unit was Mrs. Velma Fussell, and she explained the many uses of my big black leather bag which contained varied equipment which might be needed while conducting a home visit: Sphygmomanometer with stethoscope, bandages, glass bottles with alcohol and acetone, syringes, bandages, a crisp white apron, gloves, a scale for weighing newborns, and drapes. She informed me that the bag was especially useful when defending oneself from an angry dog. I only had to use it for protection once, while making a home visit to check on an inebriated patient diagnosed with TB."
Nurse Velma Fussell spoke from experience. One of the first public health nurses, she made the rounds in the community, going from school to school with Lela Knight back in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Health Unit nurses had mettle. Working at the Health Unit from January 1973 until April 1976, Louise faced many challenges that were of social work nature - on an elderly diabetic patient's behalf, convincing a worker from the local power company to delay the disconnection of electricity for non-payment; stocking the empty shelves of diabetic patients with food (out of her own pocket); and personally transporting a mother and baby, who was struggling to breathe, to the hospital (no cell phones or land lines or access to ambulance).
But the goodness of the people sustained the nurses. Louise remembered a patient in the Thomas community who had a meal waiting for her when she was expecting her first born. On each home nursing visit, they had mustard greens and cornbread ready for Louise who craved this delicious home-cooked fare.
Yet, public health nursing in Washington Parish wasn't without danger or discomfort. As Louise described, "When I first came to work at the Health Unit it was located on Pearl Street just below the Washington Parish Jail. One morning when I arrived early to work, I noticed ceiling tile and insulation all over the floor of the patients' waiting room. The night before prisoners had escaped from the jail through the health unit ceiling. Prisoners from the jail had a view of all that happened on Pearl Street and sometimes addressed pedestrians as they passed along the sidewalk. One morning some prisoners were having a contest as to how far each one could urinate out their cell window. My boss at the time (dressed in her navy blue uniform suit from Neiman Marcus) happened to be walking to her car at the time the contest was in action. She re-entered the health unit dripping with the remnants of the 'activity from above.'"
The Washington Parish Health Unit nurses, administration, and personnel are to be commended for their service, and tenacity. Heroic, they went above and beyond, caring for the people and community, in Washington Parish.
