PREMATURE –SAT, JUNE 7, 2014

Dr. Phillip Thoneberry, Jr. was only twenty-five when he graduated from medical school and began his five-year residency at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, the same age as father before him, the year was 1957.


The only difference was that Dr. Phillip Thoneberry, Senior, had graduated Cumma Sum Laude, whereas Junior had merely achieved Magna Sum Laude. And his father never forgave him — or let the younger man forget it.

Of course, the old man had gone one better than his son in 1958, when Thoneberry-the-younger started medical school: Thoneberry-the-elder invented and patented the ‘Incubator’, or ‘Incubation-Machine Device’, whereas both had studied obstetrics as their primary major, but Dr. Thoneberry-the-elder, having fifty-three years on his son, delivered his 5000th + baby by the time Thoneberry-the-younger presented the proud parents with their first (legitimate) tax deduction.

But it was not as open and shut as it appeared.

It seemed that Dr. Thoneberry, Sr. spent an inordinate amount of time sending reams of drawings and other pictorials of the benefits of his ’invention’ to all the wrong people: drug administrators and manufactures of medical devises for OB uses elsewhere than in hospitals and clinics.

The one group he traditionally ignored were the heads of OB departments who were as concerned as he about the abundance of premature births that plagued this county and others worldwide, due to miscarriages, abortions, and general economic depressions.

The only response he received of any value was an invitation from the Coney Brothers, who owned an island on which sat an amusement park near New York City, devoted to rides and attractions that offered the “vacationing public a place to see unusual things the world has to offer.”

What was truly amazing was that Dr. Thoneberry, Sr. replied at all — and in the positive! He agreed to meet with them with three caveats: if they said that this ‘invention’ of his was a true boon to the medical profession and not the 7th Wonder of the World, they would retain a simple 25Ȼ admission fee (per person or per family), and either he or his son would instruct or narrate the display — and answer all questions.

Within a single month, it became the No.1 Attraction at Coney Island and remained so from 1954-1962, when it was replaced by the D-Day Pavilion.

According to the June 2nd edition of TIME Magazine, India is the worst country — but the most desirable one — into which a woman should become pregnant, thanks mainly to experiments with nitric oxide, a therapy that could improve lung function for some preemies.


Copyright @ 2014 by Robert A. Mills, all rights reserved, may not be published, re-written or broadcast without author’s permission