"Incubator That Saved the Dionne Quintuplets Will Be on Display at the Door County Fair" from the August 21, 1962 Door County Advocate
Incubator That Saved the Dionne Quintuplets Will Be on Display at the Door County Fair
Visitors to the hospital booth in the health building at the Door county fair this year will have an opportunity to see a quaint wooden box that occupies a unique spot in medical history. On display will be the antiquated incubator that saved the lives of the famed Dionne quintuplets after they were horn in the little backwoods town of Callandar, Ontario almost three decades ago.
The wooden box with its crude appurtenances for supplying heat contributed mightily to saving the lives of the five little girls while a breathless world waited for news.
The famed quints, who captured the attention of the world in a fashion seldom duplicated, were born on May 28, 1934.
As soon as Dr. Allen R. Dafoe, the Dionne family doctor, discovered that there were five babies, his first problem was to keep the babies warm enough so that the body heat would not be lost.
A newborn infant gives off considerable body heat, as do all human beings, and it is a strain on the heart of even a normal infant to keep the body heat at the proper level. That is why all newborn children are wrapped so warmly.
A prematurely born child or one who is unusually small undergoes a tremendous strain just keeping the body heat at a normal temperature.
In the case of a two-pound child it is an easy matter for life to be snuffed out simply because the body heat cannot be raised enough to cope with the surrounding new atmosphere.
It was obvious to Dr. Dafoe that an incubator was needed badly, but none was available in the little Ontario town. The Chicago American, the first newspaper in touch with the case, asked Dr. Dafoe what he needed. He replied that an incubator was needed.
Even such a simple request turned out to be difficult. All modern incubators were heated by electric bulbs and there was no electricity in Callander.
By some stroke of luck, Sharp and Smith, the Chicago, IL division of the Aloe Surgical Co., the world's largest surgical supply house, happened to have in its warehouse a very old and obsolete incubator. The crude device had been written off the company's books as having no inventory value.
The old incubator was heated by hot water poured into a copper container. Enough heat was generator to raise the temperature inside the box to 95 or 98 degrees.
Although the incubator had long been obsolete even in 1934, it was just what was needed in this particular case. It was rushed to Callander by airplane and placed into service.
The Dionne infants were small enough so that three of them could be placed in the incubator at the same time. Dr. Dafoe rotated the children as best he could.
At the time the incubator arrived in Callander Dr. Dafoe estimated that there was only one chance in 500 that all five of the children would live. But during the first two or three critical weeks the obsolete incubator did yeoman service, and, according to Dr. Dafoe, "Saved the lives of at least two of the quints."
It is now history that all of the Dionne quintuplets lived. Four of them are still living, one having died in 1954. After serving its purpose in Callander, the incubator was displayed in Canada and later was given permanent display in Carnegie Hall in New York, N. Y. From time to time the incubator is sent on tours around the country.
[author not stated]
An earlier article, “Heads Nurses” from the August 16, 1962 Door County Advocate, describes a board of trustees meeting on August 15:
It was also announced that the hospital will have a booth at the Door county fair and will exhibit the incubator used when the Dionne quintuplets were born.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Some related articles:
A mix of emotions from those marking the Dionne Quints 89th birthday
https://www.nugget.ca/news/a-mix-of-emotions-from-those-marking-the-dionne-quints-89th-birthday
Michigan woman donates rare Dionne Quintuplets memorabilia to northern Ont. museum
https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/michigan-woman-donates-rare-dionne-quintuplets-memorabilia-to-northern-ont-museum-1.6500131
The Story of the Dionne Quintuplets
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2009/3/23/story-dionne-quintuplets
This one is about two other sets of quintuplets, who were born because their parents rejected their doctors' urging to have some or all of them killed in abortions. The article compares their situations with that of the Dionne quintuplets.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2005-01-26-0501260368-story.html
Other posts about the Door County Fair
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/door-county-fair
Other posts related to protecting unborn babies:
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/protecting-unborn-babies