Hospital Complex:

Hospital Complex:. Health Service In Relocation Center. Directly in front of you was the hospital complex. The structures remaining are the boiler house and chimney, two slabs that were warehouse foundations, one building that was the kitchen and dining room, and one building that was the ambulance office, emergency room and surgery room. The white building to the right was an administration apartment. , The 150-bed hospital complex opened on August 27, 1942 with Dr. Charles Irwin as the Chief Medical Officer. The hospital consisted of 17 wings built from barracks and connected by a long central hallway. Velma Berryman Kessel of Powell Wyoming, who was a registered nurse at the camp, recalls "The hallway, which had windows on each side, was not heated so it was like an oven in the summer and frigid in the winter." The hospital was self-contained with steam heat, laundry and kitchen facilities. When fully staffed, there were 9 physicians, 11 dentists, 3 optometrists, 10 registered nurses, 49 nurse's aides, 10 pharmacists and an ambulance service. Doctors staffing the hospital were internees. Nurses were both Caucasian and internees, nurse's aides were internees. Internee doctors were paid $19 per month, the same as a U.S. Army private. The Caucasian nurses were paid $150 per month, the internee nurses $16 per month and the aides $12. , The Health Services Section provided dental, clinical, optometry, limited x-ray and laboratory services. Among the illnesses treated in the wards were pneumonia, croup, sore throats, earaches, flu, diarrhea, cancer, cardiac problems, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, ulcers and depression. The stress of incarceration added to health problems for the internees. Accidents, resulting in broken bones, cuts and burns, were common. The majority of surgeries were tonsillectomies and appendectomies. Specialty or complicated cases were referred to hospitals in Billings, Montana. The center's hospital delivered baby formula to mothers by ambulance 24 hours a day. The ambulance drivers answered an average of thirteen emergency calls per day. The outpatient clinic saw about 130 persons per day. , The first of 566 babies born at the center was delivered Sept. 4, 1942, a boy named William Shigeru, the seventh child of Mr. and Mrs. Akiyo Miyatani, formerly of Anaheim, California. Those born at Heart Mountain came into the world as American citizens behind a barbed wire fence erected by their own government.