Edwina Parra, a New Orleans debutante at the of age of 19 was enagaged to marry a medical student. The year was 1929. She was diagnosed with Hanson's disease, better know as Leprosy, after a small red spot appeared on her thigh. Shortly thereafter, she was removed from her family home and committed to Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Center institute in Carville, LA, better known as the Leper Home. Life would never be the same for Edwina or her family. Carville became her prison.
Then came Betty.
Betty Martin was an assumed name for Edwina, it was common for patients to hide their true identity to protect their family. Leprosy patients and their families have been ostricized from society since biblical times, and it continued in New Orleans in the early 1900's.
A new treatment was being tested and she volunteered to be a guniea pig. She was the first person documented as cured from the disease using the then experimental drug sulfone. She never had any of the disfiguring symptoms common with the disease and lived to the age of XX.
Betty was an author. She wrote an autobiography, "Miracle at Carville", published in 1950 which made the New York Times Best Seller List. She also published a sequel titled, "No One Must Ever Know" in 1959, but this book was not as successful as the the first. The books are out of publication but used copies can be found on the internet. See the links on the right panel of the blog.
Betty met Harry Meyers at Carville. Harry was a patient at Carville also. Betty and Harry escaped from Carville through a hole in the fence in the 1930's and were married. They had no children. Although apparently healhty, Edwina didn't want to have children fearing the disease was heriditary.
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Edwina Meyer aka Betty Martin
Edwina Meyer
Edwina Meyer aka Betty Martin
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- Armand Doizé CPA
- Lafayette, Louisiana
8 comments:
I read this book when I was in high school, around 1973 and I remember the story to this day. It is one of those books that leave an impression. I thought I would Google to see what came up and was happy to find this blog post. If you ever find a copy it is totally worth reading!
I read it recently and am now reading the sequel. Unfortunately, few can read the book today. I found a copy in the Avoyelles Parish library in Marksville, LA. Unfortunately, it hadn't been checked out since 2005. People need to understand what others have gone through. I also recommend the novel "Moloka'i" by Alan Brennert. We look forward to visiting Carville this Spring.
What does it mean, "she lived to the age of XX"?
Anyway. I was pointed here by someone who read my review on "The Island", a book by Victoria Hislop about the leper colony on Spinalonga, off Crete in the Mediterranean.
Seems like this ostracizing of sufferers from Hansen's disease was going on all over the world, and probably in some parts still is.
Miracle at Carville was republished in the past couple of years so it might again be available. Both Martin's books are beautiful accounts of life in and out of the Carville hospital. They speak of the pain but also the determination by Betty and Harry to live their lives to the full.
Another book of interest is Out of the Shadow of Leprosy: the Carville Letters and Stories of the Landry Family (University Press of Mississippi). It is features letters from 1924-1932 by Edmond Landry (aka Gabe Michael) to his family, giving a first person account of life in the hospital.
Harry was cured two months before Betty so I don't understand where they got she was the first to be healed using the new drugs
If you can get a hold of a copy, Who Walk Alone is also good. It's about a Spanish American war vet who contracts the disease in the Philippines and returns there for treatment
If you can get a hold of a copy, Who Walk Alone is also good. It's about a Spanish American war vet who contracts the disease in the Philippines and returns there for treatment
Copies of Miracle at Carville can be purchased for $25 at the Carville museum.
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