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missmcspooks · 2 years

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DEADLY WOMEN DAILY: TYPHOID MARY

Meet Typhoid Mary. Her story is not a typical true crime story that I typically cover. However, this case will give you insight into just how poor the healthcare system was in the early 1900’s, and how they treated people who carried diseases, which are often associated with prejudice. Typhoid Mary was stubborn, which probably did aid in a lot of the problems that happened. However, the healthcare system failed her terribly, and the neglect of information given to her, and the neglect of proper care, is what really sparked this outbreak. Was Typhoid Mary a silent and neglectful killer? Or was she simply uninformed and a victim of medical neglect? That’s for you to decide. Let’s begin with her story.

This next paragraph consists of all the information on what Typhoid Fever is, how it’s contracted, what the symptoms are, and the general history of the disease. If you’re not interested in knowing this information and just want Mary’s story, you can skip down to the next paragraph.

I’m sure you all are very well aware of the COVID-19 pandemic. What if I told you that in the early 1900’s there was another pandemic? It was called Typhoid Fever. This pandemic was very large in the United States, but specifically in New York City and Long Island, which is where Mary worked. Typhoid Fever was caused by the bacteria Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi. People normally contracted this bacteria through contaminated food and water. This bacteria would go through the digestive tract and multiply in the lymphoid tissue. Then it enters the bloodstream and causes bacteremia. Most major epidemics of Typhoid Fever were caused by the pollution of public water supplies. Additionally, food and milk may also be contaminated by a worker who carries this disease. The average incubation period for Typhoid Fever was 10-14 days, and the early symptoms were typically fever, malaise, headache, general body aches, and restlessness that can turn into insomnia. There could also be cough, diarrhea, loss of appetite, constipation, and nosebleeds. The fever will rise more and more each day, until it reaches around 104F after around 7-10 days. If left untreated it can continue on for another 10-14 days or longer. The second week of the fever will cause ulcers in the walls of the intestines, hemorrhages, or peritonitis. Other complications could be acute inflammation of the gallbladder, pneumonia, heart failure, meningitis, osteomyelitis, and encephalitis. Additionally, if the fever continues persistently, it could cause confusion and delirium. By the end of week three, the patient has prominent mental disturbances, and are emaciated. Early in week four, the symptoms start to fade, the fever starts to go down, and their temperature gets back to normal. However, if left untreated, the disease could be fatal, which happens between 10-30% of all cases. With treated cases, only 1% of patients have been reported deceased. People were diagnosed with Typhoid fever through stool and blood cultures, and serological testing. Immunization for this disease wasn’t developed until 1911, and there were no antibiotics for this until 1948. Therefore, any healthy carriers of the disease, just like Mary, would have to be stopped and strictly confined. Or at least that’s how they liked to handle cases like this back in the day.

There is very little information regarding Mary’s childhood and upbringing. Her actual name is Mary Mallon, 1869 In Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland. It’s assumed that she was born with Typhoid Fever because her mother was infected with the disease during her pregnancy. When she was fifteen she immigrated to the United States in 1883 to live with her aunt and uncle while she worked as a maid. However, Mary’s true passion was cooking, and she eventually became a domestic servant who also cooked for wealthy family households.

Between the years 1900 and 1907 nearly two dozen people became ill with Typhoid Fever, primarily in households in NYC and Long Island where Mary worked. People became sick shortly after she started working for them in each household, but by the time anyone was able to trace the source back to the homes at which she worked, Mary had already left and gone to a new household. Due to this case being so very specific, I’m going to breakdown each of her jobs to better understand how many people she directly infected where she worked.

1900: Worked in Mamaroneck, New York. Residents developed Typhoid fever within two weeks.

1901: Worked for a home in Manhattan. Several members of the household developed symptoms of Typhoid Fever. One person died.

1901 Continued: Worked for a lawyer and his family. Seven out of eight residents became infected.

1904: Worked for a lawyer. Laundress became infected. Soon after, four out of seven servants also became infected.

1904 continued: Worked for a family in Tuxedo Park. Laundress became infected and was taken to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with Typhoid Fever and was the first case they’ve had there in a very long time.

1906: Worked for a wealthy family in their summer home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Six out of eleven people became sick with Typhoid Fever. Three medical doctors who worked in Oyster Bay all stated that it was very unusual to have any cases of Typhoid Fever, as it’s been a long time since they’ve had a case.

1906: Worked for a family on Park Avenue towards the end of the year. Their maid became sick in 1907, and shortly afterwards two of their servants also became sick and had to be admitted into the hospital. Their daughter as well ended up contracting Typhoid Fever and sadly passed away.

Mary’s last household in 1907 would be her downfall. After the recent death due to Typhoid Fever, an investigation began. The investigator George Soper, who specialized in Typhoid Fever epidemics was hired for this case. Soper eventually met up with Mary and had linked all twenty two cases of Typhoid Fever that occurred in Manhattan and Long Island to her, and accused her of knowingly spreading the disease. Feeling angry and scared, Mary flead. It was hard for investigators to find Mary due to not having an address for her, but somehow they were able to locate her boyfriend and tracked her down there. (Isn’t it strange how her boyfriend never caught the disease from her? Maybe he was also a healthy carrier, or just had a very good immune system). Soper tried to persuade Mary to give urine and stool samples so they could identify whether or not she had the Typhoid bacteria. She refused, and said that Typhoid Fever was everywhere due to contaminated water sources and strongly believed that she wasn’t a carrier for this disease. However, it’s understandable as to why she thought that, because during this time, healthy carriers of the disease were unknown, even to healthcare practitioners. Soper went back and reviewed her five year work history and found that seven out of the eight out of the seven families that she worked for ended up contracting Typhoid Fever. Due to her refusal to cooperate, Soper contacted the NYC Health Department and it was confirmed that she had to be a carrier. She was arrested as a threat to public health.

This is where things start getting very sad for Mary. She was forced into an ambulance by multiple police officers, and was brought to Willard Parker Hospital and was forced to give samples so they could test her. She wasn’t even allowed to use the bathroom on her own for several days. The amount of Typhoid bacteria that was found in her stool was massive, and they figured out that the bacteria was likely coming from her gallbladder. She was sentenced to quarantine in 1907 at North Brother Island. Here she was forced to give three stool samples every week, and doctors suggested that they remove her gallbladder so she could stop carrying the disease. Mary refused to remove it because she didn’t believe that she actually carried the disease, and gallbladder removal at this time was very dangerous, and people have died during this surgery. Additionally, she refused to stop working as a cook due to how well the job paid, and being on the verge of poverty without even having her own home.

Some experts were unsupportive about forcing Mary into isolation, and stated that she just had to be taught properly about just how bad her condition was, and the proper way she can prevent it from spreading to others, along with proper medical treatment for her condition. After her arrest her mental state began to decline and she suffered from a nervous breakdown, and tried to sue the New York Health Department, but it was denied. She wrote a letter to her lawyer complaining that they were abusing her. They were forcing her to undergo multiple tests, constantly, treating her like a lab rat for experiments. She was a victim of health laws, the press, and all doctors who tested her. They had all the time to perform endless tests on this poor woman, but never took the time out to actually discuss her problems with her. She wasn’t even allowed to see an eye doctor for six months, even though she had issues with her eyes. She was forced to undergo hectic medical treatments that caused her multiple medical issues, including the possibility of destroying her kidneys. They weren’t even exactly sure where the disease was coming from, as they told her that it was coming from her intestines, and then her bowel muscles, and then her gallbladder. Which one is it, docs? Pick a lane.

Mary was put through this hell for nearly three years. She was even able to have a friend help her and sent her stool samples to an Independent New York Laboratory, and all of her results came back negative. Additionally, almost a quarter of her tests that she took at North Brother Island also came back negative for Typhoid. Nearly three years into her quarantine, the New York State Commissioner of Health decided that carriers of diseases should not be held in isolation. He said Mary could be freed as long as she agreed to never work in the food industry again, and to take reasonable steps to ensure that she doesn’t continue to spread the disease. She agreed to all of these terms and even signed an affidavit and was freed in February 1910.

After Mary was released she was given a job as a laundress, which paid much less than cooking. It was only $20 a month compared to the $50 a month she was getting previously. She ended up wounding her arm which became infected, and she was out of work for six months. She tried to keep the laundress job for as long as she could, but she was just not making enough money for her to survive on, and she was miserable. She decided to break her oath and began cooking again, but she was using fake surnames so she wouldn’t be identified. She worked in multiple kitchens for restaurants, hotels, and even spas, and everywhere she worked there would be an outbreak of Typhoid Fever. Unfortunately she changed jobs very frequently, and she was always working under a different name, so it was hard for Soper and other investigators to find her. Fortunately, Soper was able to find her based on descriptions given from her co-workers and also identified her handwriting. She was found and placed back into isolation on North Brother Island, where she ended up spending the rest of her life.

There isn’t a whole lot known about her life during her second quarantine. It’s reported that she became very depressed and didn’t have any friends, but she took comfort in her religion, which helped her become less bitter. She was there for more than 23 years, and was given her own private one story cottage. She was eventually allowed to take day trips to the mainland, and was given a job to work in a laboratory that was on the Island, and she became a technician. There she would do recordings, wash bottles, and prepare glasses for pathologists.

Mary ended up suffering from a stroke in 1932, and half of her body became paralyzed. She ended up passing away from pneumonia in 1938 at the age of 69. Only nine people attended her funeral. There were 51 original cases of Typhoid fever and three deaths that were confirmed to have been the cause of Mary. However, it’s speculated that there could’ve been many more.

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