Dov Bar's Volchin - Medical Care

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Dov Bar's Volchin

Medical Care
There was no health clinic in Volchin -- there was only a Feltscher, a paramedic/dresser, who used to ask the sick whether they had “their bowel movement” or were constipated, before attending to them. So the sick of Volchin used health services available in Wysokie Litewskie.

For example, in 1939 at the time of the Russian occupation, my Aunt Minnie was still unmarried and was living in her father's (Racmil's) house, in Volchin. She fell ill with the flu --or, probably, pneumonia-- and was “hospitalized” for 8 days in the clinic (or sanitorium) of Dr. Kirshtein and his wife, a dentist, in Wysokie Litewskie until she recovered. The owner of the clinic probably got paid a considerable amount of money under the table.

This was the same Dr. Kirshtein who served the inhabitants of Volchin. When he was called to attend to a seriously sick person, he would appear in his horse-and-carriage. In winter, the same carriage was equipped with a snow-sledge.

They used to joke in Volchin that the medication that he used to offer his patients was ritzinoyl --castor oil.

Editor's Notes: under the table: Most likely, under the Soviets, such private care was forbidden. Snow-sledge: probably a sleigh, as locals were known to posses; it seems unlikely that a carriage could be converted to such, but the same horse could be hitched to either. The 1928 Polish Business Survey confirms that the Kirsteins ran a joint medical and dental practice in Wysokie. Aside from conventional medical treatment uring the 1920's and 1930's a Pole named Melcher provided herbal treatment in Volchin, as noted here.

Page Last Updated: 03-Nov-2011