How an impostor doctor saved thousands of children's lives and changed the course of medical science

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the distant 30s, a shocking attraction appeared in America where a "doctor" named Martin Coney, later nicknamed the incubator doctor, demonstrated premature babies in incubators. The ticket cost 25 cents and there was no end to those wishing to look at small babies.

Martin Coney's goal was very noble: in American hospitals of that time, these babies born prematurely were waiting for certain death, they were considered genetically defective.

Here is what a woman who survived the Martin Coney show says: “The doctors did not help me at all. It was simple: you will die because you did not belong to the world. This woman was lucky: her father knew a man who could help - Martin Coney.

Martin Arthur Coney, née Martin Cohn, was a German-Jewish immigrant who was born in France in 1870. He claimed to be a student of Pierre-Constant Boudin, who was developing incubators for premature babies in Europe, but there is no evidence of this.

Incubators were invented in Paris back in 1880. They were made of steel and glass, but were too expensive. Because of this, they did not have mass use until the time when an eccentric fake doctor, who was not accepted in medical circles, was engaged in their popularization. He first presented incubators at an exhibition in Berlin in 1896.

In 1903, Martin Coney moved to a country of great opportunity for any kind of adventurer - America. There, according to various estimates, he saved about 6,500 children's lives by showing the babies lying in incubators. One day of staying in them cost $ 15, which today is equivalent to $ 400. Not everyone could afford it.

The doctor's attraction helped raise money for the maintenance of tiny people, whose struggle for life was so eagerly watched. The American press of that time wrote about these children: “When you see these children (there may be twenty-five of them at a time), you will be surprised how such strange little creatures will ever become people. They look more like tiny monkeys than the tough men and women they will eventually become."

Doctors of that time considered Martin Coney to be a circus performer and a swindler, but he never tired of telling representatives of various publications that he would refuse exhibitions only when premature babies were provided with the decent medical care they deserve.

Among other things, Martin Coney was one of the earliest advocates of breastfeeding. He demanded from his staff a complete absence of bad habits. All the nurses were always in snow-white starched uniforms, and the room where the children were shone with impeccable cleanliness.

By the beginning of the 40s, people's ardent interest in the show with premature babies lying in outlandish incubators had slowly dried up, but, fortunately, by that time, departments had already begun to massively open in hospitals, where such children were treated and nursed.

The pioneer of neonatology, pediatrician without medical records and just a man with a huge heart passed away in the 1950s at the age of 80. Like many geniuses, Martin Coney died forgotten by everyone and without a cent in his pocket. But his dream came true, and his legacy lives on now. Read our article about another not very happy genius.