This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

A late-night drive to the emergency room...learn the thread that connects Hennepin County to Dakota County for medical care

Understanding our medical history - from Hennepin County to Dakota County

 

By Bonnie Boberg
Secretary, Burnsville Historical Society

It was 1:30 in the morning in early September 2013 and the pain was getting so bad that I didn’t think I would be able to walk much longer. I hated to wake anyone at that time of the night, so I dragged myself down to my car and drove to the emergency room at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville. It was discovered that I had a kidney stone. And, believe me I wouldn’t wish that kind of pain on anyone! I was so thankful that I didn’t have to drive a long distance to receive medical care.

But, if we look back 40 years it was just exactly that scenario. It was the middle of the afternoon on a fall day in 1973 and a member of the local school board was pregnant with her second child. Burnsville and the western half of Dakota County were experiencing a huge population growth. Housing construction was booming and with that many young couples were buying these homes and starting their families in this area. Unfortunately, we had to drive at least 30 miles to Farmington, Shakopee or Edina to have our babies. Our school board member, however, didn’t make it to the hospital in Edina – she gave birth in her car on the interstate freeway in Bloomington.

And, it wasn’t just giving birth to our babies that caused us to go to Hennepin County to seek medical care – there were few doctors in our area so we had to cross the river for pediatric care, general surgical care, and medical appointments. Before Fairview Ridges Hospital opened in 1984, Burnsville residents were primarily going to Eitel Hospital in Minneapolis and Fairview Southdale Hospital (which opened in 1965) in Edina for medical care.

Find out what's happening in Burnsvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

By November 1981, however, ground was being broken for Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville and along with the new facility came many new doctors and clinics to this area. No more risking life and limb to drive miles to receive hospital care.

Would you like to hear more? The Burnsville Area Historical Society is pleased to welcome Burnsville resident Carol Oeltjenbruns to our monthly meeting in October. She and I both gave birth to our children in the late 60s and early 70s at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Hennepin County and I am sure that many of you readers can identify with us. Oeltjenbruns will present a program on the history of hospitals and medical care in Hennepin County and touch on how it influenced the residents of  Dakota County.

Find out what's happening in Burnsvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Oeltjenbruns, an RN for hospitals throughout Hennepin County from 1976 to 2007, now volunteers with the HCMC (Hennepin County Medical Center) History Museum. The museum collects, preserves and interprets the history of HCMC and its predecessor hospitals dating from 1887.  

St. Barnabas was the first hospital in Hennepin County (in the 1880s) and was actually a private home. It was opened to serve primarily the men who worked in the logging and milling industries. Oeltjenbruns will discuss the Cadet Nursing Program, which offered a uniform and a financial stipend to women who were willing to come to the Cities to train as nurses during WWII. She will talk about the Sister Kenny program and treatments for polio. She will talk about the competition between Swedish and St. Mary’s hospitals for which hospital had the most OB deliveries. She will talk about the early ambulance service, where depending on which hospital you were using, the buggy that would pick you up would have either black or white horses. She will bring us up to today, discussing the hyperbaric chamber at HCMC and the future with molecular biology. She will bring posters, photos and artifacts to share this exciting history.

Oeltjenbruns grew up in the Cosmos area of Minnesota and then attended the Fairview Nursing Program from 1959-62. She has worked at many of the hospitals throughout Hennepin County. She and her husband moved to Burnsville in 1973, raising their two children here. She has also been active in the Sweet Sioux Garden Club and is the president-elect for the St. Paul AAUW organization.

“There have been mind-boggling changes in medical care for our generation,” said Oeltjenbruns. “Medical care is still changing and we hope that this program will help people appreciate the past and how our medicine today is built on our past medical experiences.”

Everyone is welcome to the Burnsville Historical Society meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at 190 S. River Ridge Circle, Burnsville (Suite 111). Please come and share your stories and observations about the historical relationship between Dakota County residents and the hospitals, nurses and doctors that have served them. For more information, call Bonnie Boberg at 952-890-5089 or go to info@burnsvillehistory.org.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?