Title
Lt. Col. Eugene Garland Northington, 1880-1933
Subject
Hospitals
Physicians
Northington, Eugene Garland, 1880-1933
Description
The World War II Army hospital in Tuscaloosa was named in memory of Lt. Col. Eugene Garland Northington, born Feb 12, 1880 in Prattville, Alabama, and who was a former student at the University of Alabama. He received his medical degree from Tulane in 1903.
After graduating from Tulane, Northington began his medical practice in Birmingham where he owned the first X-ray machine in the state.
He was a veteran of the Spanish-American War and World War I, in service with the Army Medical Corps.
Northington was formerly the head of the Army base hospital at Camp Lewis, Tacoma WA, before he was appointed to be in command of the Army facility at Letterman General Hospital at the Presidio, San Francisco, in February 1919. In the years 1918 and 1919, the Letterman hospital was the Army's largest hospital and cared for more than 18,000 soldiers returning from World War I, including the seriously wounded and psychiatric cases.
After World War I, he returned to Birmingham.
His experimentations with the X-ray equipment showed the dangers to the operators of the machines. The burns he received required amputations of both arms and eventually cost him his live. He died June 9, 1933 and is buried in San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio. He is considered a martyr by many in the medial profession.
TIME Milestones, Jun. 19, 1933--Died. Eugene G. Northington. 53, retired lieutenant colonel of the U. S. Army Medical Corps who as a pioneer experimenter with x-rays first established their danger to the user; of cancer of the limbs caused by too frequent x-rays exposure; in San Francisco. Calif. To check the spread of cancerous tissue he had army surgeons operate on him 164 times, lost both arms bit by bit.
After graduating from Tulane, Northington began his medical practice in Birmingham where he owned the first X-ray machine in the state.
He was a veteran of the Spanish-American War and World War I, in service with the Army Medical Corps.
Northington was formerly the head of the Army base hospital at Camp Lewis, Tacoma WA, before he was appointed to be in command of the Army facility at Letterman General Hospital at the Presidio, San Francisco, in February 1919. In the years 1918 and 1919, the Letterman hospital was the Army's largest hospital and cared for more than 18,000 soldiers returning from World War I, including the seriously wounded and psychiatric cases.
After World War I, he returned to Birmingham.
His experimentations with the X-ray equipment showed the dangers to the operators of the machines. The burns he received required amputations of both arms and eventually cost him his live. He died June 9, 1933 and is buried in San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio. He is considered a martyr by many in the medial profession.
TIME Milestones, Jun. 19, 1933--Died. Eugene G. Northington. 53, retired lieutenant colonel of the U. S. Army Medical Corps who as a pioneer experimenter with x-rays first established their danger to the user; of cancer of the limbs caused by too frequent x-rays exposure; in San Francisco. Calif. To check the spread of cancerous tissue he had army surgeons operate on him 164 times, lost both arms bit by bit.
Source
Tuscaloosa News Archive
DCH Regional Medical Center
Contributor
Brenda Harris (Description)
Type
Photograph
Identifier
831
Coverage
Tuscaloosa (AL)
Original Format
Photograph