Hospital Complex:

The hospital complex at Heart Mountain opened as a 150-bed facility on August 27, 1942, with Dr. Charles Irwin as Chief Medical Officer, and consisted of 17 wings built from barracks and connected by a long central hallway. Remaining structures include the boiler house and chimney, two warehouse foundations, the former kitchen and dining room building, the former ambulance office, emergency room, and surgery room, and an administration apartment. The hospital was self-contained with steam heat, laundry, and kitchen facilities, and when fully staffed it had 9 physicians, 11 dentists, 3 optometrists, 10 registered nurses, 49 nurse's aides, 10 pharmacists, and an ambulance service. Doctors were internees; nurses were both Caucasian and internees; and nurse's aides were internees. Internee doctors were paid $19 per month, the same as a U.S. Army private, while Caucasian nurses were paid $150 per month, internee nurses $16 per month, and aides $12. Velma Berryman Kessel of Powell, Wyoming, a registered nurse at the camp, recalled that the window-lined hallway was unheated, like an oven in summer and frigid in winter. The Health Services Section provided dental, clinical, optometry, limited x-ray, and laboratory services, treating illnesses including pneumonia, croup, sore throats, earaches, flu, diarrhea, cancer, cardiac problems, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, ulcers, and depression. Stress from incarceration worsened health problems for internees, and accidents causing broken bones, cuts, and burns were common. Most surgeries were tonsillectomies and appendectomies, while specialty or complicated cases were referred to hospitals in Billings, Montana. The hospital also delivered baby formula to mothers by ambulance 24 hours a day, ambulance drivers answered an average of thirteen emergency calls per day, and the outpatient clinic saw about 130 persons daily. The first of 566 babies born at the center was delivered on Sept. 4, 1942: William Shigeru, the seventh child of Mr. and Mrs. Akiyo Miyatani, formerly of Anaheim, California. Those born at Heart Mountain entered the world as American citizens behind a barbed wire fence erected by their own government.

Wyoming · United States