Patient beds line the corridors of Henry Ford Hospital during the Influenza Epidemic of 1919. From the Conrad R. Lam Collection, Henry Ford Health System.
Influenza Epidemic
For a brief period beginning in 1918, Henry Ford Hospital was turned over to the U.S. government and became known as U.S. Army General Hospital No. 36 in order to care for wounded soldiers returning from World War I. The war ended in November 1918, and by July 1919 Henry Ford Hospital returned to private use. Soon after, Henry Ford offered the hospital to the city of Detroit to provide care for the growing number of flu victims from the lingering Influenza Epidemic of 1918. Many of the hospital physicians, like Frank J. Sladen, M.D., had just returned from the war with first-hand experience dealing with the deadly disease.
In 1918, Dr. Sladen co-authored an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association about the influenza epidemic at Camp Sherman, a military camp in Ohio. His medical expertise was essential at the hospital where he worked with Edsel Ford and the Detroit Board of Health on assisting the sick. This level of commitment to end the deadly disease is evident in a 1920 hospital memo in which Dr. Sladen writes, "Mr. Edsel Ford called me and stated that he wanted me to specifically understand that every resource at the hospital should be placed at the disposal of the Board of Health to the limit of our ability and on his authority."
All flu patient cases were based on specific need, regardless of financial arrangements. Henry F. Vaughan, M.D., City of Detroit Health Commissioner, stated that by January 1920 the epidemic had peaked and passed, after 9,000 Detroiters had fallen victim to the disease. The hospital has assisted in several influenza outbreaks since then, notably in 1957, 1968, 1976, and the most recent outbreak in 2009.