Pneumonia Flight

Emergency. On Friday, April 20, Floyd Bennett suffering from influenza flew to the assistance of the Bremen crew. When he arrived in Lake Ste. Agnes, Quebec, he had contracted pneumonia. On

Sunday, April 22, he was rushed to the Jeffrey Hale hospital, Quebec; word was flashed to New York. The New York World and the North American Newspaper Alliance, sponsors of the flight, immediately telephoned Dr. William H. Delaney, superintendent of the hospital, suggesting a consultation, which was gratefully accepted. Dr. Alvan L. Barach, assistant physician at the Presbyterian Hospital, New York, was sent up as consultant, arriving in Quebec with his special apparatus and two tanks of compressed oxygen, Monday, April 23. Bennett's condition was very grave. A large part of the left lung was already involved, the right lung was also affected. In Canada, in the U. S., men & women prayed.

Relief. In Manhattan, John Davison Rockefeller Jr. telephoned Dr. Simon Flexner, director of laboratories of the Rockefeller Institute, asking if something could not be done. Director Flexner telephoned to Quebec. Consultant Barach said: "Well, you might send me some fresh Serum No. I and II. I probably could get it here, but I'd like to have it on hand in case we find it is the proper treatment."

On Tuesday, April 24, Colonel Charles Augustus Lindbergh flew to Quebec, carrying twelve bottles of anti-pneumonia serum and three white mice, and accompanied by Thomas B. Applegate, private secretary to Mr. Rockefeller. Immediately on his arrival that evening the white mice were inoculated with Floyd Bennett's sputum. Just before midnight the results of the inoculation were published. The bulletin read: "The type of pneumonia from which Bennett is suffering has been disclosed by the inoculation of mice as type III." A simple statement, but it meant the sera were useless, the flight was in vain, the breaks were against Bennett.

Death. On Wednesday morning, April 25, at 20 minutes to 11, Floyd Bennett died.

Damnation. That evening Prime Minister of Quebec Hon. Louis Alexandre Taschereau and Provincial Secretary L. Athanase David spoke long and loud before their public. They characterized the Lindbergh flight as unnecessary, as pure bluff, as U. S. publicity under the guise of charity. They declared there was plenty of anti-pneumonia serum to be had in Quebec. Said Spokesman David:

"But I cannot stomach this way of making profit of a tragic situation under the mask of charity. Here we have everything that is necessary, and we do not need people to come from the United States to bring us serum. We can get along without American doctors be they the most accomplished specialists of that great country.

"The serum--why they did not even try it. It was not the good one. We pass for a country of snows. That is bad enough without calling us a land of ignorants. We have scientists. We have serums."

In the United States these bitter words aroused echoes. Discontented citizens took up the accusation. A feeling that aviation was unscrupulous, newspapers debased, that the public had been hoaxed, even that Charles Augustus Lindbergh had lent a hand to this nefarious business sprang up. Letters poured in to the newspapers demanding explanations. Was it just a publicity stunt? Why was not the serum used, if it was needed? Why did it have to be sent dramatically from Manhattan by air when Montreal was known as a great medical centre? What was the pretty touch about sending the white mice?

Justification. Such squealing sceptics show by their questions that they know nothing about

1) The course of pneumonia;

2) The treatment of pneumonia;

3) The research made in pneumonia.

Even Prime Ministers and Provincial Secretaries may be ignorant of medicine. Every step that was taken was absolutely justified and imperative.

Dr. Alvan L. Barach was chosen as consultant because he has developed the oxygen tent which has already saved many otherwise hopeless cases of pneumonia. The pneumonia patient generally suffocates to death. The lungs become congested, he cannot take in enough air to keep alive, he gasps, coughs, turns blue in the face, dies. Dr. Barach's oxygen tent surrounds the patient's head and chest with an atmosphere of 60% oxygen. He no longer fights for air, it is fed to him. This was the tent through which Bennett greeted Lindbergh; in which he lived from the moment of Dr. Barach's arrival.

It was necessary to send the serum from New York, by airplane. Pneumonia is not a simple, single disease. Originally the term "pneumonia" meant any disease characterized by high fever and inflammation of the parenchyma of the lungs. The vast number of causes--colds, bronchitis, influenza, typhoid fever, measles, fatigue, exposure--indicates its complexity. During the War men died of pneumonia after inhaling poison gases.

The Pneumonia. A large family of organisms called the pneumococci are responsible for the various types of pneumonia. They fall into four great groups, Types I, II, III, IV. For Types I and II excellent sera have been prepared from horses. These can be found in any large city in the world, including Montreal, although there was none obtainable in Quebec. Horse serum, however, makes many sick people worse. The foreign proteins introduced into the human body may cause chills, sweating, suffocation, fainting: obviously not the best stimulation for a Floyd Bennett with a temperature of 103 degrees; a pulse of 124 beats a minute; a left lung full of pus. This was the Type II serum at Montreal; pure enough but containing horse serum.

For three years Drs. Felton and Rosenow at Harvard and Drs. Park and Banzhaf at the New York City Board of Health had worked to get the horse serum out of the final product. Finally they were successful. They developed a method of growing the antibodies in the horse, making the serum, then refining it until all the horse serum was removed, leaving only the helpful antibodies. The refined product is ten times as effective and has no dangerous after effects. There is only one place in Canada or the United States where this serum is prepared: the Board of Health of the City of New York. This is the serum that was sent by air for Floyd Bennett.

The white mice did not go along for the ride. They went to prove which type of pneumonia was responsible. Mice, to qualify for this work, must be bred through many generations. Their family and life history must be known in order to avoid introducing complicating factors. Pedigreed Canadian mice would have done as well, but since the plane and the serum were going anyway, there was no need to take a chance on not finding the mice.

Floyd Bennett had been in the hospital only one day when the plane left New York. It is not always possible to determine the type of pneumonia in that time. Unfortunately he had Type III double lobar pneumonia, the most dangerous of all the pneumonias, for which no reliable serum has as yet been developed. Had it been Type I or II, the press might now be full of encomiums for the quick thinking, quick acting expedition that saved his life.