Trivia
HardBaby Incubators, Now A Staple Of Premature Infant Care, Were Pioneered Where?
Answer: Coney Island
Incubators are now a staple of premature infant care. Over the last half century, millions of premature and at-risk babies have been kept at stable temperatures tucked safely inside their glass and plastic enclosures until their delicate bodies were ready to handle full exposure to the outside world. It’s hard to imagine a time when we didn’t so intuitively protect premature babies in such a fashion.
Yet the doctor that first created and championed the incubator, Dr. Martin Couney, wasn’t taken seriously by the medical establishment and his incubators went unadopted. Undeterred by the failure of the establishment to see the value of the incubators and how critical they were to keeping premature babies alive, Couney took a very unconventional approach: he took his incubators to Coney Island.
Yes, that, Coney Island, the New York island famously known for amusement parks and delicious hot dogs. Couney’s plan was as clever as the incubators he had created. He approached the owners of Luna Park, a prominent amusement park on Coney Island, and proposed a plan. He would set up a sideshow filled with incubators to house premature babies. In turn he would charge admission and that admission fee would be used to cover the expenses of staffing the exhibit with caretakers and nurses so that the families of the premature babies could enjoy the care without expense.
Although it seems peculiar to a modern reader to put premature babies on display as a sideshow act in an amusement park, the arrangement saved the lives of thousands upon thousands of children over the decades Couney ran the program. In an age when doctors would simply tell the parents of premature babies “We sorry, there’s nothing that can be done,” frantic parents across New York City would hail cabs and rush their frail children to Coney Island where Dr. Couney used his innovative incubators and the curiosity of the public to help babies like their own.
Shortly before his death in 1950, the establishment finally came around, perhaps in light of how many babies his Coney Island project had saved, and incubators became a staple fixture in neonatal care wards across the country.
Trivia
HardIn The 1980s, Computer Hobbyists Would Double The Capacity Of Floppy Disks With?
Trivia
HardThe Mall Of America Is Principally Heated By?
Trivia
HardThe Hairy Ball Theorem Helps Explain What?
Trivia
Very HardThe Boxer Crab Clutches Which Of These Things In Its Claws As A Weapon?
Trivia
HardOne Of The Hills Of Rome Is Composed Almost Entirely Of What?
Trivia
EasyWhich Of These Common Candies Puts You At Risk For Heart Problems?
Trivia
HardWhich Star Wars Actor Became Enormously Wealthy Off The Film’s Royalties?
Trivia
HardA Group Of Off-The-Shelf Computers Run In Parallel As A Super Computer Is Called A?
Trivia
EasyWhat Animal Is, Relative To Its Size, The Fastest Runner On Earth?