Sanatorium Girl

Book excerpt: In 1920, tuberculosis was the main killer of young people. Occupational therapy had just begun as a profession unto itself. The Mississippi State Tuberculosis Sanatorium had been open only two years. Louisa Anne McFarland, from Jones County, was sent to the Sanatorium to heal her tubercular lungs. On the same path so many TB patients took, she remained to work after being healed. She learned how to do occupational therapy with other patients. Early occupational therapists seldom had formal professional education or any kind of formal credentialing. This novel is an example of how such unrecognized women of the early 20th century saw a need and filled it. With so many young adults thrust together, the outcome of sex and unwanted pregnancy was inevitable.