Feb. 23, 2008

Santa Fe New Mexican

A forgotten history
New exhibit focuses on tuberculosis patients and how they changed New Mexico
Sue Vorenberg | The New Mexican

Mexico wheezed its way into statehood.

They were lungers — tuberculosis patients — and Jake Spidle, an associate history professor at The University of New Mexico, wants to make sure they're not forgotten.

"You always hear about mining, ranching and railroading as the founding industries of this state, but I think you have to add coughing and spitting to those industries," Spidle said.

Spidle and the UNM Health Sciences Center have set up a new exhibit where people can learn about this nearly forgotten group of New Mexicans called "Search for a Cure: Life at Valmora," which runs through October.

"For nearly 10 years now I've been doing a missionary crusade of sorts around the state on this under appreciated aspect of New Mexico's history," Spidle said of the exhibit, which features pictures, stories and some equipment used in old sanatoria.

From the late 1800s into the early 1940s, tuberculosis patients flocked to the state under medical advice that said high altitude and sunshine were the best cures for the disease.

Of course, those ideas weren't really based on scientific facts, but nonetheless, tuberculosis patients with little other hope figured they'd come to New Mexico and give the ideas a shot, Spidle said.

"Look, it makes more sense if you're going to lie down, to lie down in Santa Fe in the sun, rather than lying down in the bad air in Pittsburgh or Chicago, but beyond that, there really wasn't much to altitude and sunshine as a cure," Spidle said.

Lungers, which wasn't thought of as a derogatory term, Spidle assured, set up shop at centers called sanitoria all over the state. There were at least a half-dozen of them in Santa Fe and many more sprinkled throughout Northern New Mexico.

From the late 1890s through the mid 1920s, the state built more than 44 sanatoria.

"In Albuquerque, Central Avenue in the teens and '20s was called San Alley, because it was lined with them," Spidle said.

And along with their disease, the throngs of patients also brought their families, their fortunes and their talents, he said.

"I argue that a whole bunch of talented people would up in Silver City, Santa Fe, Las Vegas or Albuquerque rather than big East Coast cities, where they thought they'd be," Spidle said. "There are hundreds, maybe thousands of New Mexicans in every sphere of life that have some sort of relation to those involuntary New Mexicans."

The founder of Valmora, William T. Brown, was one of those people. He originally came to New Mexico as a TB patient from Illinois and beat the disease. Carl H. Gullenthien, a Chicago medical student, was sent to Valmora in 1924 to treat his tuberculosis, and in 1927 he returned as a doctor, became director in 1935 and remained there practicing medicine for more than 60 years, Spidle said.

"In some ways, the good outcomes here for tuberculosis patients were related to things like that — the doctors here were very experienced with the disease," Spidle said. "They'd prescribe rest, good food, limited exercise, and a portion of the patients did, in fact, recover."

Lungers also helped expand banking, legal and political systems across the state, he said.

"You shake any of those trees gently in the teens, '20s and '30s and lungers will fall out," Spidle said.

Still, the lungers' impact on New Mexico probably wasn't all good. While there's no concrete proof, it's likely that they spread their disease to many of the locals, especially those who cared for them, and especially Hispanics, Spidle said.

"I'm afraid that's an answer that has not been carefully researched, but all the information I've seen indicates that did happen," Spidle said.

It was only the expanded use of modern antibiotics starting in the 1940s that stopped the influx of TB patients to the state — and ultimately got the disease under control, at least in most first-world countries.

TB remains a serious problem in Mexico to this day, as it is in Africa and many other places with poor health care options.

"Somebody once called it 'the captain of death,' " Spidle said. "And it's still a problem in the developing world, although it's not nearly as bad globally as it was in the early 1900s."

Contact Sue Vorenberg at 986-3072 or svorenberg@sfnewmexican.com.