Angela Rita Dahm, Palo Alto County

Interviewee: Angela Rita Dahm
Interviewer: Kate Scott
Date of Interview: August 27, 2007
Location of Interview: Emmetsburg, IA
Run Time: Approximately 60M

Cassette
Biographical Data Form
Oral History Release
Majeski, Tom. “One Breath at a Time,” Pioneer Press, February 20, 2005, 1A.   
Photographs (3)
Transcript

Angela Rita Dahm worked at the Sister Elizabeth Kenny Institute as a Registered Nurse from 1952 to 1955. She reflected, “While I was working at Swedish Hospital they put out a call over the radio that they desperately needed help at the Elizabeth Kenny Institute because the patient overload was just really bad.  So, I volunteered.  I called and said I’ll come over after I’m through with work today. I went to work there at four o’clock after working at the hospital and we were just terribly busy.  They put me in the emergency room or the admission room and that emergency door just kept opening all the time with new patients arriving by ambulance.  A lot of them came from Iowa, I remember.  I worked probably until 12 – 1 o’clock in the morning.  This went on for about a week.  I’d barely get home and the phone would ring and I’d go again.  I finally resigned at the Swedish Hospital and went to work full-time at the Elizabeth Kenny Institute – the 3-11 shift.  I remember the wards – it was a new school that was converted to this institute.  I did not meet Sister Elizabeth Kenny but all her methods of treatment were being used.”