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Dr. Lapham’s Bug Hill
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2018/10 - October | Photograph By: Highlands Historical Society
Breakthroughs in tuberculosis treatment in the early 1900s sky-rocketed Highlands’ fame. From 1908-1918 Mary Lapham with her compassionate, innovative medical remedies, got herself noticed in a big way. 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of her success at her Highlands tuberculosis sanatorium, aka Bug Hill.
In 1882, one of every seven people died from TB. When doctors determined TB spread by coughing, consumption patients were often spurned and isolated. There was no hope, no known cure. The general public was terrified.
The medical world began experimenting with a variety of treatments, including moving patients to wooded, high elevations, mountain air being the closest thing to an oxygen tent. Highlands was the perfect setting. Walking the inclines kept compromised lungs actively pumping that pure air. Good nutrition rounded out the prescription for hopeful recovery.
Mary Lapham was a pioneer in pneumothorax, a cutting-edge treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis. Her method was to gradually collapse an infected lung by injecting it with small doses of nitrogen. In a compressed state, a lung could rest
and heal.
Collapsing a lung was risky business, and many protested the concept. But Mary’s determination to create a center and a cure paid off. She and the mountain air made many patients well.
Her talks and demos and medical journal entries helped other physicians achieve similar success. In 1940, just four years after her death, 80 percent of patients in treatment were undergoing some type of lung collapse therapy. It remained the treatment of choice until the 1950s, when Streptomycin wiped out TB in the United States.
At the end of this year the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker for Dr. Mary Lapham, approved by Department of Natural and Cultural Resources on May 24th, will be installed on North Fourth Street in the vicinity of the Historic Village. It will read: Mary Lapham, 1860-1936. Physician; innovator in treatment of tuberculosis. Served in Europe, World War I. Operated a sanatorium here 1908-1918.
For more accounts of remarkable people of the Plateau, read Randolph Shaffner’s “Heart of the Blue Ridge” or visit the Highlands Historical Society at 524 North Fourth Street, email [email protected], or visit www.highlandshistory.com.
