ITEMS

Bushnell General Hospital amputee rehabilitation 1946

These brave men helped Franklin Roosevelt defeat the three dictators.
J.R. Farrar, amputee instructor, shot these scenes of amputee rehabilitation using the family 8mm movie camera. I apologize for the fuzzyness of the images, but this was in the days before autofocus.

The construction of Bushnell General Hospital in Brigham City, Utah was begun a couple months after Pearl Harbor. It was substantially complete by the end of 1942 and accepted its first Army casualties in the Fall of that year. The hospital operated until 1947.

It primarily treated amputees whose homes were in the western U.S. It received the first supplies of penicillin in the United States for experimental use on the wounds of military casualties. Many of the side effects of this first miracle drug were discovered at Bushnell.

The rehabilitation program included teaching the amputees how to do everyday tasks, drive cars and ride horses using their prostheses, as well as the gardening and crafts shown in this short video clip. The hospital staff used every method available to give the men reasons to overcome the loss of their hands, arms and legs.

Army doctors worked with the machinists in the "brace shop" to design and fabricate prostheses for every unique situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y63pNHmOL2w&t=48s

1946