Hanna Wunsch

The Festival

Location: Lahn Social Hall

The Autumn Ghost. How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care

A sus­pense­ful, author­i­ta­tive account of how the bat­tle against a mid-cen­tu­ry polio epi­dem­ic sparked a rev­o­lu­tion in med­ical care. In The Autumn Ghost, Dr. Han­nah Wun­sch traces the ori­gins of two inno­va­tions (ICUs and mechan­i­cal ven­ti­la­tion) back to a polio epi­dem­ic in the autumn of 1952. This vivid, grip­ping tale of an epi­dem­ic that changed the world includes a riv­et­ing sec­tion on the Dan­ish doc­tors who used their free­dom of move­ment to admit Jew­ish patients into the hos­pi­tal and smug­gle them out to safe­ty. These doc­tors brave­ly sub­vert­ed Nazi con­trol to save 7,220 Jews. The Autumn Ghost tells the ori­gin sto­ry of the heroes of the ICU. It also includes the sto­ry of FDR and dis­abil­i­ty acces­si­bil­i­ty that he helped pioneer. 

Member: $12 Guest: $15

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