A review by kategci
The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies by Dawn Raffel

4.0

I picked this up to read for a pop-up book group in NYC sponsored by Book the Writer. As a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, I was very interested in the story of how the littlest babies were saved around the turn of the 20th Century. I had heard of the side shows where babies were exhibited in incubators, but I did not know the story of how they came to be. Dawn Raffel's story of Dr. Couney's life is briskly paced and tells the story of an immigrant success story, from entrepreneur to almost respected businessman. Dr. Couney or Martin Cohn as he was named at birth, fled from Europe in the late 1800s and came to America. He needed to make a living and may or may not have been a doctor in his native country. He was fascinated by the doctors and scientists who were developing incubators to care for premature infants. Hospitals were just coming into being as most women gave birth at home and those who were ill and in need of hospital care mostly could not afford it. In addition, hospitals were pretty dirty places. Finally, premature infants were not valued as patients or people. Many doctors put aside those who they felt were too small to survive. Dr. Couney came up with his side show of incubators, so that small infants born in the Spring and Summer got a chance at life. While he had some friends in the medical community, many were more were against his displays and what they viewed as exploitation. Starting out in several World Fairs, he was able build a staff of skilled nurses to care for these small, vulnerable babies and give them a chance at life. I flew through Dawn Raffel's book which is illustrated with 50 photos depicting the characters and the exhibits. More importantly, everyone in the book group loved it as well.