Medic-Care
by Alfred Opp
Health care practices from by-gone times have been an interesting
topic both in published books and in family folk-lore stories. What
was done by the German Colonists in Bessarabia had similarities to
what was done in the rest of Europe. I would, however, like to share
some of my childhood experiences in Bessarabia.
When I was a toddler, I contracted diphtheria. I became urgently in
need of professional medical care. Time was running out. By then we
did have a doctor in town, and my Dad went out in the middle of the
night to call for the doctor. Along the say, Dad also stopped at my
grandparents, who lived across the street from the doctor. They all
came back in grandpa's two-wheeler one-horse carriage. Dr. Frank
looked in my mouth, confirmed the diagnosis, and instantly noticed
that I was in a very serious condition. He ordered Dad to send
someone immediately to the Apotheke (drugstore) in Arzis, some 8 km.
away. Grandpa went to work to unhitch the horse from the carraige,
and then one of Dad's workers took off on the horse toward Arzis.
Understanding the urgency, he traveled as fast as he could. When he
arrived at Arzis, being in the night, the Apotheke was closed. But
he knocked on the window of the Apothekers residence, who then got
up and filled the prescription. Dad's worker then rode the horse
hard back to Teplitz. Both horse and rider were in a sweat when they
completed their journey. Mom told me that I had only seconds or
minutes before I would have died. But the medicine arrived in time,
and I survived.
In those days (1933-1934), doctors and druggists understood they
could not hold to "office hours." Being called into service was part
of their business. If callers had gotten into a habit of only
showing up at odd hours, that would have been different. In
Bessarabia, not every town had a doctor, much less an Apotheke. Many
people avoided patronizing either, due to the cost. People generally
relied on folk-knowledge to threat their aches and pains. Women
skilled at folk-medicine not only cared for their own ill family
members, but often were resources for others in the community.
The folk medicines and treatments they used were things inherited
from the elders and ancestors of by-gone times. Basic remedies were
teas, diet, and massages - often using mixtures of herbs found in
nature's garden. My Grandma Regge Opp had a pair of hands as strong
as a bricklayer, and yet a touch as gentle as a feather. She was
often called upon to massage people's limbs. My Dad was stricken
with rheumatic fever in 1936. The pain was so severe that he cries
could be heard outside the house. He would not let my Mom touch him
to move him in and out of bed. Rather, he called on his mother, my
Grandma Regge Opp, to do it.
One day, I came down with an infected tooth. My face was swollen on
one side and was very painful. Dad went with me to Dr. Frank, who
was a big, friendly man. Dr. Frank told Dad to hold me tight while
he went to work. There was no icing or pain relief of any kind to
calm me down. What worked was Dad’s warning me to hold still, or
else! That was enough said. I opened my mouth and the tooth was
pulled out.
Another family story in my past was that my great-grandma Regina
(Gerber) Mueller had a gallstone problem that could only have been
cured by surgery. The family heard about a surgeon in Odessa who was
known to be a very good surgeon, but expensive. Great-grandpa was
quite well-to-do and wanted to take his wife to the surgeon in
Odessa. But she would not go under any circumstances. She refused to
go such a distance away to expose her body to a strange man, doctor
or not. That was that. A short time later she died.
My grandma Regge Opp never went to a doctor in her entire life. She
looked after her own medical needs. She also died of gallstones.
I have seen much illness and death in my lifetime. To me, that is a
natural occurrence. What is not natural is to see the agony of
people, including children, as they are starved to death. Both my
little sister and my youngest brother were victims of starvation in
internment camps after WWII in Poland. My Dad, a civilian with a
heart weakened by rheumatic fever, was arrested and forced into hard
labor under starvation food conditions in a labor camp in the
Ukraine after WWII ended. He was worked to death under these
horrible conditions. Those of us who survived those conditions were
helpless to help our own family members. The frustration and pain is
with me to this day.
The war taught me many lessons. The hundreds and hundreds of war
dead that I have seen were the result of acts of hate. I can only
deal with such memories by forgiveness. To take an innocent child
and nail it to a cross, just to get even, I cannot and never will
understand. My mother told me about one of the last moments of my
sister's life - I truly cannot repeat it . . . . .
Alfred Opp
Edited by Connie Dahlke
____________________
Alfred Opp is the author of "Pawns on the World Stage" - the memoirs
of his childhood in Teplitz, Bessarabia and the experiences of his
family in war-torn Europe (Poland during 1941-1945 before they fled
to East Germany in 1945, then the reconstruction of West Germany
1945-1955).