The Strange Case of Dr. Couney

The World’s Fair in 1933-32 was held during the Depression, as Hitler started his rise to power in Germany; perhaps ironically, it was called the “Century of Progress,” and it  was about “how technology will bring humankind to a better place,” Ms. Raffel said. As Nazi technology fueled the Holocaust and Allied technology led to the invention of the atom bomb that finally ended the war, “the idea was that technology was the driver of humanity,” she said.

and,

Wait. What?

Incubators on the Midway. With real babies in them. Incubators that also could be found in the sideshows on Coney Island and Atlantic City.

And many of the babies in those incubators survived their premature births and the inability of the hospitals where they were born to nurture them only because of those sideshows.

Dr. Martin Couney — whose name was not Martin Couney but Michael Cohen, and whose medical credential was self-awarded — saved somewhere between 6,500 and 7,000 babies over the course of 40 years, Ms. Raffel learned. Among his other secrets — or at least not widely shared with public truths — was that he was Jewish.

and this,

“There were no IVs and no monitors then,” Ms. Raffel said. They had not been invented yet. “But the babies were fed constantly, and also they were big believers in touch.” So unlike children in hospitals, who were treated with dispassion and rarely touched, these babies were picked up and cuddled and were able to relax into the warmth of a human hug.

I discovered this story last night in current issue of our local Jewish Standard weekly.  It is a fascinating and almost outlandish account of one immigrant’s ingenuity and dedication to saving the lives of babies in his new homeland of America.

It is a must read.

The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies