History of Iberville Parish

U. S. Public Heath Service Hospital

Carville, La.

By:  Darelyn Marshall

The History of the Carville Hospital, as it is commonly called, began in New Orleans in the early 1890's when a series of articles appeared the The Picayune reported death's due to leprosy.  The reporter discovered' a house which the city rented to keep about ten victims of leprosy.  The house was very poorly operated, patients received very little care from the doctor paid to operate it, and no precautions were taken to alt the spread of the disease.

Leprosy was not new in Louisiana; the firs hospital was established in 1785 in New Orleans between the river and Bayou St. John, but within a few years the disease disappeared from the city and the building went to decay.  This area was not occupied again for many years due to public fear of contamination.

The disease began to reappear in Louisiana, Texas, California and Florida in the mid 1800's, probably introduced from the West Indies.  New public awareness again generated fear; but there were some special individuals who became concerned for the victims.

Father Charles Boglioli, and Italian priest became chaplain at Charity Hospital in 1866.  He made daily rounds among the patients, many suffering from contagious diseases.  He died of leprosy contracted at the hospital.

Dr. Isadore Dyer was a lecturer on dermatology at Tulane University and was already interested in establishing a research and treatment center for leprosy when the articles firs appeared the Daily Picayune.  Al though he preferred a center in New Orleans, near research facilities, he was active in negotiating the lease on Indian Camp Plantation at Point Clair, near Carville, Louisiana.

Indian Camp Plantation was built around 1857 by Robert Coleman Camp on a tract of land he purchased in 1825 and made into a sugar plantation.  General Camp gave it the name Indian Camp because it was reported to have once been a Houma Indian village.  The house has the characteristics of the Greek revival architecture with the exception of the two recessed wings.  The very elegant house began its decline during the Civil War and the Camps lost their fortune and had to sell the plantation in a Sheriff's auction in 1874. The property, bought by Henry J. Budington of New Orleans, was finally abandoned by his heirs who were living in France.

Captain Allen Jumel, a member of the new Board of Control for the Leper Home, owned a plantation at Point Clair and his wife owned Ravenswood Estate, adjoining Indian Camp Plantation.  He convinced the State Legislature to lease Indian Camp and told his neighbors that the plantation was being reopened as an ostrich farm.  The mansion was in grave disrepair and could not be inhabited; the seven slave cabins served as a home for the patients brought from New Orleans by barge in November, 1894

For a year, they received care from Dr. L. A. Wailes, a local physician, but were on their own after he resigned.  In 1896, Dr. Dyer convinced the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul to manage nursing and household chores.  Dr. Ralph Hopkins began weekly visits in 1901 until his death in 1945.  By 1902, the population had crown to 62 patients and Dr. Hopkins worked to get better facilities.  The state bought the property in 1905 and the next year, replaced the slave cabins with twelve cottages containing single rooms for ten patients in each cottage.

The patients were separated by sex and race with a high wall built through the middle separating men form women, and a fence installed to keep the patients for leaving the facility.

As early as 1917, the U. S. Public Health Service was looking for a site to establish a treatment center for persons with leprosy and to prevent its spread in the United States. Due to a convincing report from the Louisiana State Board of Control, the United States took over the hospital January 3, 1921, and brought Dr. Oswald Denny as the first Medical Officer in Charge.  Under Federal control, the fences separating the sexes came down and families that had been apart for years could see each other again.  Dr. Denny even organized a dance at the hospital for the ninety patients there.  By 1923 the hospital was expanded to hold 425 patients and had an infirmary with laboratory and therapeutic equipment.  Even with the new reforms, there were still isolation and hopelessness.  There was a prison atmosphere, mostly the result of unjustified fear and ignorance.

Leprosy is caused by a bacterium that attacks the nerves and its most devastating effect is the lack of pain or sensation in the body's extremities.  The bacillus can also invade bone marrow, eyes, teeth, etc., and can reduce the body's resistance to other diseases.  The disease is now called Hansen's Disease after Gerhard A. Hansen, who first identified the microbe in 1874, and because the disease does not have the same symptoms as the leprosy of biblical times.

Although many treatments have been used, a major breakthrough in the treatment of Hansen's Disease was made by Dr. Guy Faget at Carville in 1941 with the introduction of sulfone drugs.  These drugs kill all accessible bacilli and stop the progress of the disease.  With proper diagnosis, there is no longer a need for long hospital confinement.

Even before the sulfone drugs, it was known that the disease was contagious for only a small number of people and that no one have ever contracted the disease by working or visiting the hospital.  Still the old fears remain, partly due to the unfortunate use of the term leprosy and its ancient connection, partly to the mysterious origins and symptoms of the disease, and partly to the increase in new cases (almost 300 per year) at the hospital as a result of increased immigration from infected areas of the world.

The hospital's transition from a prison-like institution where patients were referred to as inmates, to a treatment, research, and care center for voluntary patients, most of whom stay only a short time, has been very slow.  Much of the reform for patients was the result of public education from a patient-published magazine, the Star.  The publication was begun by Stanley Stein in May 1931 and was originally called "The Sixty-Six Star.  The Star is still being published under the direction of Louis Boudreaux and its main goal is to eradicate the stigma associated with Hansen's Disease that still affects victims and their families.

While most of the reform at the hospital was the result of protests of the patients, they were given help and encouragement from outside the hospital.  The first and most important group to give aid was the American Legion.  Following World War II, a number of veterans were admitted as patients.  The American Legion did many things for the hospital, but the national publicity that they gave was the largest gift of all.  It influenced many veterans' organizations to become interested in the U. S. Public Health Service Hospital at Carville.

Sources:

Calandro, Charles.  "Indian Camp Plantation--Island of Hope", Sunday Advocate Magazine.  December 20, 1981.

Case, Julia.  "Leprosy," State Times, May 28, 1983

Stein, Stanley, with Lawrence G. Blockman.  Alone No Longer. 1963.

Catholic Encyclopedia

Copyright © 2007 by Karen Wise. All rights reserved.