Page 42 By Gregory Reynolds The men and women who made the diffcult journey into the Porcupine Gold Camp had to be as strong as the elem ents that tried to beat them down. There are a couple of chapte rs of the area’ s history that bear repeating. The Hollinger Gold Mine hospital was only for its employees in the pe - riod 1912-16. This policy mea nt other people (including the wives and chil - dren of mine employees) had to see a family physician and pay for ser - vices. Any condition requiring a specialist meant leaving the Camp and going to a lar ger centre, usually T oronto. There is a heart wrenching story about one of the many people desperate for medical help. Eva Desora, an Italian immigrant and midwife, had to make a horrible choice involving the fate of her sick daughter . The girl had acute appendicitis and in desperation Eva appealed to Noah T immins, the head of Hollinger and for whom the community was named. He granted permission to go to the hospital but the primitive institution had neither a sur geon nor equipment to deal with the girl’ s condition. T o avoid the long and expensive trip to T oronto, Eva sent a telegram to a Dr . Lowrey in Englehart asking for his help. He met her on the Englehart train platform and examined the child. He predicted she would die before any train reached T oronto but he could not perform the required sur gery . He said her only hope was for Eva to see a Dr . Mitchell performing operations in nearby Cobalt. She met with the visiting sur geon and he said he would require $50 to stay over in Cobalt to save her daughter . It was a lot of money but Eva agreed and afte r successful sur gery , she asked for her bill. Dr . Mitchell then proposed in ex - change for cancelling her bill that she give her daughter to he and his wife. When Eva refused, the doctor ex - plained he knew how poor she was and what a good life he and his wife could give the girl. They were child - less and overnight they had become attached to the girl. Eva refused again, saying (I will give her the best I can. She could not ask for anything more.) Eva managed to pay the bill. In a twist of fate, many years later Eva ran into Dr ,. Mitchell in a T oronto hospital and reminded him of the time he tried to barter for her daughter . “Y es,” said Dr , Mitchell sadly , “and I think of her often.” The camp’ s medical history does have some lighter moments and one of them occurred in 1960 and involved one of the several expansions of St. Mary’ s General Hospital in the T own of T immins. T wo doctors had gotten into an ar gu - ment in 1959 over whether the wing ever would be built as it had been dis - cussed for years. One said to the other , “if it is ever built, I will kiss your ass on the T im - mins T own Hall steps in broad day - light.” The other doctor pledged a sizable contribution to the project, if it hap - pened. After the offcial sod turning in 1960 for the $2.2-million wing a small group who knew of the bet walked around the corner to the T own Hall which shared a city block with the hospital. The winning doctor pulled his pants partially down and also his shorts and the loser plant ed a kill on the upper part of his ass. A reporter at the time and having cov - ered the sod turning he shot a picture of the kiss. It made the front page of The Daily Press, along with a short story he wrote for background. The doctors were praised by most people for being good sports but there were some in the medical community who thought the event lowered the dignity of the profession and distract - ed from the good publicity the sod turning deserved. As well , fund raising was taki ng place for both the expansion and new equip - ment. The incident did not harm the campaign but helped it. The new wing opened in 1962. St. Mary’ s General Hospital before the 1962 expansion. Both humour and pathos part of Camp’ s medical history “The Porcupine Camp” 100 Y ears of Mining Page 40