Science journalist Maria Smilios was compiling a book on orphan lung disease when one line caught her attention. In a chapter on rare lung diseases, the author commented that treatments could be discovered as quickly as TB was discovered at Seaview Hospital on Staten Island in the 1950s.
Smilios began studying and learned how the first clinical trials of life-smoking antibiotics occurred in the ocean view, under the careful supervision of an experienced nurse. However, she was able to find a little more about the nurse.
“These women were completely erased from history,” says Smilios. “There was nothing about them. There was nothing.”
She uncovers their stories and learns about nurses that doctors say are responsible for the success of the Sea View Drug Trial and the discovery of treatments for tuberculosis.
read more: Eight amazing black scientists and how they changed history
The woman behind the treatment
Tuberculosis (TB) has been plaguing humans for thousands of years and is also seen in archaeological records. It goes back to 9,000 years ago. Written records of tuberculosis go back three to three hundred years ago. Sometimes the disease was as deadly as the plague, and was responsible for 25% of deaths in the US and Europe between the 1600s and 1800s.
In New York in the late 1920s, TB was more common among the poor who lived in crowded, often unsanitary conditions. They were sent to the sea views in the administration I had a hard time hiring a nurse. White nurses feared illness, they quit and sought employment elsewhere rather than risking infection.
The hospital has started recruiting women from the South, particularly those who were black nurses, but were unable to find meaningful employment due to quarantine.
Over the next decades, these nurses provided patient care, assisted in surgery, and became disease experts.
“They knew the decline and flow of the disease. They knew the nuances. They knew at one moment that the patient could be well. Tuberculosis was long and elicited. It’s here.” Black Angels: An untold story of a nurse who helped treat tuberculosis.
Their expertise became important for drug testing, which was supervised by physician Edward Rovitzzek.
“Lovitzek said that without the black nurses, the trial would never have happened,” Smilios said.
Find a Treatment TB
Clemmy Phillips photo (credit: Elizabeth Pualea)
The exam began in secret in May 1951. Lovitzek was approached by a pharmaceutical company after receiving the opportunity to test a new antibiotic, isoniazid. It was never tested in humans, only animals.
“This was the first human trial, and there were no data on side effects or treatment rates,” Smilios said.
Robitzek selected five patients and asked if they were willing to participate in the trial. He then organized nurses who were commissioned to oversee the first stage, including Missouri Meadowswalker, Edna Sutton, Johnny B. Shirley, Clemy Phillips and Stibersa Bethel.
In June 1951, nurses gave the trial patients the first dose of isoniazid. For the next six weeks, they took the patients daily and kept constantly monitoring them. They took intense notes in the logbooks Robizzek collected every night.
The nurse was so aware of the patient’s condition that Smilios said he was able to identify any change in time. For example, convulsions were one of the side effects of the medication, but the patient slept under a heavy blanket. The nurses were very familiar with the patient and were able to detect even subtle movements.
“Smartility tells us how meticulous they were in their work,” says Smilios.
The patient also experienced dizziness, increased appetite, weight gain, and sensations of ear ringing. The nurse documented all the changes, organized the data and presented them to Robitzek for further analysis.
The first trial was successful, and Robizzek recruited another 92 patients and more black angels to participate. Ultimately, this study determines isoniazid is the most effective when used with two other antibiotics.
By early 1952, the newspaper had announced that treatment had been discovered, and Sea View trial patients were thriving. Robitzek was quoted, respected and remembered throughout history.
However, the nurses had almost forgotten everything.
The hidden history of tuberculosis nurses
Missouri Meadowswalker photo (credit: Bernice Alaine)
When Smilios began his research in 2015, the black angels were not yet alive. One of them, Virginia Allen (86 at the time), agreed to meet with Smilios for regular interviews. She shared names and contact information for nurses’ families who passed oral history, photos, letters and other artifacts.
Lovitzek’s son then provided Smilios with his father’s records, including detailed notes on the tuberculosis test.
Smilios learned how nurses were treated when they first came to New York. Some patients refused to admit them, and they endured the abuse – the worst case scenario is when an angry patient coughs and targets an infected ph directly on the nurse’s face.
Given their closeness with patients, nurses were at a higher risk of tuberculosis, and some nurses were sick and had to quit their jobs. But for decades, black angels were constant in the ocean views, providing patient care in increasingly desperate times.
The effects of tuberculosis
Virginia Allen photo (credit: Maria Smilios)
Tuberculosis bacteria Usually grows In the lungs, they can develop elsewhere, such as the kidneys, spine, and lymph nodes. In the ocean view, the surgeon tried to cut off the infected part of the lungs and save a person, but few patients left the hospital alive. She stayed for years before her death, and nurses often looked after patients who were restrained or worried about their future.
However, even long-term patients were able to leave the hospital after successful drug trials. The last tuberculosis patient 1961 left sea view.
Tuberculosis remains a fatal infection. 2023, Almost 11 million People around the world contracted tuberculosis, and 1.25 million people died from it.
Antibiotics are still being used to treat tuberculosis, including isoniazid, a drug that began in a secret trial at Seaview Hospital under the careful eyes of the Black Angels.
read more: What is the drug bedaquiline and why is it important for people with tuberculosis?
article sauce
Our author discovermagazine.com Our articles use peer-reviewed research and high-quality sources, and editors review scientific accuracy and editing criteria. Check out the sources used below in this article.
Emilie Lucchesi writes for some of the nation’s largest newspapers, including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Missouri and an MA from DePaul University. She also holds a PhD. Within communications from the University of Illinois University of Chicago, I focus on media framing, message construction and stigma communication. Emily has written three non-fiction books. Surviving her third Light in the Dark: Ted Bundy, released on October 3, 2023 by the Chicago Review Press, co-authored with survivor Kathy Kleiner Rubin.
