{"id":213036,"date":"2019-10-25T13:57:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T18:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=213036"},"modified":"2019-10-24T20:14:25","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T01:14:25","slug":"doctor-coney-island-saved-premature-babies-hospitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doctor-coney-island-saved-premature-babies-hospitals\/","title":{"rendered":"How a doctor and a Coney Island exhibit saved premature babies that hospitals couldn’t"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lucille Horn was born in 1920<\/a> weighing less than two pounds. The doctors told her parents there was nothing that could be done to save her, and that their premature newborn baby girl would certainly die. That’s when Horn’s father took matters into his own hands and brought his baby to the one place where he hoped she could be saved: Coney Island.<\/p>\n

In 1903, Coney Island became home to an exhibit that was also a makeshift hospital for premature babies. French-born Dr. Martin Couney (who, incidentally,\u00a0may not have actually been<\/a> a medical doctor), having witnessed how well incubators were working to save babies at the Berlin Exposition in 1896, imported incubators to the United States. There, he used them to open the first incubator baby exhibit at Luna Park in Coney Island. He soon opened a second one at Dreamland, a neighboring amusement park at Coney Island. Visitors would pay to take a peek at these tiny babies clinging to life, but the real amazement of it all was that Couney had a team of doctors and nurses caring for the babies around the clock. He saved about 6,500 lives.<\/p>\n

Many of the babies, like Horn, came to Coney Island from a local hospital that didn’t have the means to help them. Couney was their only chance.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Born premature at 21 weeks, Eliora celebrates her first birthday<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n