July 30, 1927: Doctor Called Out on Emergency with a Twist

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

July 30, 1927: Dr. Carl K. Becker was almost never angry with a patient, but he reached his limit when he received a call from a farmer who said his children were sick in bed with diarrhea and asked him to come immediately.

Dr. Becker raced to the farmhouse to see the children happily playing in the yard. Becker asked the farmer, “What’s going on? Your children aren’t sick!” The man appeared embarrassed and sheepishly took the doctor upstairs into a bedroom where his wife lay, groaning in labor.

Becker knew that he needed instruments from his office for a safe delivery, to save the life of the child and the other, which he has not brought with him to treat diarrhea.

“Why didn’t you tell me on the phone that she was in labor?” The farmer hesitated, then said, with a reddened face, “Doctor, there are just some things that a Christian man doesn’t talk about.”

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