The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies

by Dawn Raffel Narrated by Erin Bennett

Overview

“A*mosaic mystery told in vignettes, cliffhangers, curious asides, and some surreal plot twists as Raffel investigates the secrets of the man who changed infant care in America.”-NPR, 2018's Great Reads

What kind of doctor puts his patients on display?*This is the spellbinding tale of a*mysterious Coney Island doctor who revolutionized neonatal care more than one hundred years ago and saved some seven thousand babies. Dr. Martin Couney's story is a kaleidoscopic ride through the intersection of ebullient entrepreneurship, enlightened pediatric care, and the wild culture of world's fairs at the beginning of the American Century.

As Dawn Raffel recounts, Dr. Couney used incubators and careful nursing to keep previously doomed infants alive, while displaying these babies alongside sword swallowers, bearded ladies, and burlesque shows at Coney Island, Atlantic City, and venues across the nation. How this*turn-of-the-twentieth-century émigré became the savior to families with premature infants-known then as “weaklings”-as he ignored the scorn of the medical establishment and fought the rising popularity of eugenics is one of the most astounding stories of modern medicine. Dr. Couney, for all his entrepreneurial gusto, is a surprisingly appealing character, someone who genuinely cared for the well-being of his tiny patients. But he had something to hide...

Drawing on historical documents, original reportage, and interviews with surviving patients, Dawn Raffel tells the marvelously eccentric story of Couney's mysterious carnival career, his larger-than-life personality, and his unprecedented success as the savior of the fragile wonders that are tiny, tiny babies.
*
A*New York Times Book Review*New & Noteworthy Title
A*Real Simple*Best Book of 2018
Christopher Award-winner

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

04/30/2018
Raffel (In the Year of Long Division) sheds a welcome light on a medical outlier whose landmark treatment of premature babies was largely dismissed because of the carnival setting in which he showcased their care. Pulling together documents, photos, and interviews, including some with now-elderly preemies who were among Couney’s incubator babies, Raffel traces the extraordinary life of Michael Cohn, born in 1869 in Krotoszyn, Poland, as he reinvents himself in America as Dr. Martin Couney, proud showman of tiny incubator babies—some as small as two pounds—in specialized facilities he constructed at world’s fairs and summer amusement parks across the country. What the medical world ignored—save Chicago pediatrician and father of neonatology Julius Hess, who deeply admired Couney and was profoundly influenced by his work—was the meticulous attention those fragile babies were given: frequent feedings by round-the-clock wet-nurses or with a “spoon-to-the-nose” maneuver, and even oxygen. The exhibits, Raffel finds, were “the forerunners of the modern premature nursery” eventually popularized by Hess and other pediatricians. It’s estimated Couney saved between 6,500 and 7,000 preemies brought to him by their parents, an extraordinary accomplishment at a time when few doctors were even attempting it. With colorful descriptions of the carnival world and the medical marvels of early neonatalogy, Raffel makes a fascinating case for this unusual pioneer’s rightful place in medical history. Agent: Melanie Jackson, Melanie Jackson Agency. (July)

From the Publisher

Praise for The Strange Case of Dr. Couney

An O Magazine Summer 2018 Poolside Read

"Fascinating, mysterious and compelling...written with great style and the energy of a can't-put-down thriller." —The Chicago Tribune

“[The Strange Case of Dr. Couney] is a mosaic mystery told in vignettes, cliffhangers, curious asides, and some surreal plot twists as Raffel investigates the secrets of the man who changed infant care in America.… It's a fascinating historical footnote, compassionately told.” —NPR.org

“In this account, told in a series of non-chronological vignettes, Raffel argues that Couney deserves recognition… Working in the shadow of the eugenics movement, [Couney] insisted that such infants, whom hospitals could seldom save, deserved a chance.” —The New Yorker

"With colorful descriptions of the carnival world and the medical marvels of early neonatalogy, Raffel makes a fascinating case for this unusual pioneer’s rightful place in medical history." 
-Publisher's Weekly

“Compelling on many levels… Raffel’s arresting and illuminating work of hidden history should not be missed.” – Booklist

"Many readers will share Raffel's admiration of Couney... The book's title is no hype; this is a startling account of an improbable huckster who made his living promoting a lifesaving device."
-Kirkus Reviews

"With fantastic detail, Raffel brings to life this complicated pioneer." -Real Simple

"This is a fascinating story about a showman doctor who was able to save babies by putting them on display in incubators as a sideshow attraction. Existing on the cusp of the fantastical and scientific breakthrough, stories like this are the backbone of our American lore, legend, and history." -Medium.com

"In a story too crazy to be anything but true, Dawn Raffel relates the tale of a mysterious immigrant "doctor" who saved thousands of premature babies by placing them in incubators in World Fair sideshows in Coney Island and Atlantic City." -Bustle

"A compelling historic mystery uncovered." -Saturday Evening Post

"Long before modern neonatal clinics made it possible and even commonplace to save premature babies, Dr. Couney’s “infant incubators” welcomed the “tiniest bits of humanity” into the world with two drops of brandy and a show name.  A fantastic, carnivalesque story filled with twists and surprises, The Strange Case of Dr. Couney entertains with a delightful assortment of historical oddities and a serious, sobering look at health practices, missteps, and unexpectedly resourceful advances in American medicine."
-Kristen Iversen, author of Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats

“This astonishing new book will be an instant classic of literary nonfiction—painstakingly researched and written with lyricism and irony. Dawn Raffel has pulled the curtain on one of the most remarkable rescue missions in history. Over seven thousand innocent lives saved at a time when medical science turned its treasonous back.”
-Dennis Covington, author of National Book Award finalist Salvation on Sand Mountain

"In carnival midways in the early decades of the 20th century—amid carousels, elephants, fire-eaters, and pie-eating contests—a gentleman of indeterminate origin, of unspecified medical background, displayed premature human babies in incubators that looked like arcade games. They were real babies, not wax; struggling to live; at home among the “Human Oddities!” of the side-shows only because preemies weighing two or three pounds at birth didn’t ever survive, had rarely been seen. Fair-goers bought tickets and lined up to gawk at them, and were asked to refrain from trying to reach in and poke the infants. Though Dr. Couney (both the prefix and the name were inventions) was more showman than doctor, he saved the babies' lives by the thousands and pioneered American neonatology. His story is richly told in a book that savors every honk of John Philip Sousa from a marching band, every salty crunch of carnival popcorn, every sparkle of a Ferris wheel turning in a night sky, and the desperate hopes of parents traveling from their lying-in hospitals by bus or subway to the carnivals, carrying their premature newborns in shoe boxes and hat boxes or inside their coats."
-Melissa Fay Greene, two-time National Book Award finalist for Praying for Sheetrock and The Temple Bombing

School Library Journal

07/01/2018
At the turn of the 20th century, there was no better place to see the astonishing changes around the globe than at grand expositions and fairs. In the United States, Coney Island provided a venue for showmen to present peeks into the future by revealing new gadgets, offering thrilling rides, and hawking sideshow oddity exhibits. Among these men was Dr. Martin Couney. Couney wasn't actually a doctor, but his idea of putting premature babies on display, snug in newly invented incubators, and charging viewers (but not the infants' parents) a small entry fee, saved lives—and made him rich. His success rate? Greater than 80 percent at a time when hospitals were sending similar three-pound newborns home to die. His genius was in recognizing the benefits of the incubator, perfecting how it worked, and, with his staff, creating methods for keeping the babies warm, fed, and loved. Never accepted by the medical establishment, Couney nevertheless continued to refine his process and save thousands of children. Presented in clustered tidbits, the narrative moves back and forth through time. While this meticulously researched work assumes knowledge of 20th-century history and personalities, such as the Dionne quintuplets, attentive readers will find a fascinating story set within the extraordinary richness of a burgeoning progressive era. VERDICT A solid addition for sophisticated teens.—Connie Williams, Petaluma Public Library, CA

Kirkus Reviews

2018-05-15
A shocking and bizarre history of premature infant care in America.Editor and journalist Raffel (The Secret Life of Objects, 2012, etc.) tells her story mostly as a biography of an implausible character, Martin Couney (1870-1950), whose claim to being a physician could not be verified. Premature infants are unable to maintain a normal temperature and may become too weak to eat. This was no secret, and by the end of the 19th century, inventive physicians, especially in France, had produced primitive containers designed to keep them warm. At the time, hospitals mostly served the poor, and doctors worked alone. Neither wanted these expensive new devices, so inventors promoted them in international exhibitions or as commercial entertainment. "At the Infant Incubator Charity at No. 26, Boulevard Poissonière," writes the author, "Parisians paid fifteen centimes to see babies described by a reporter as ‘just big enough to put in your pocket.' That same reporter stated that ‘like the bearded lady in the circus,' the show was worth the price." Raffel introduces her subject as a young promoter who secured London rights for Queen Victoria's 1897 Diamond Jubilee. After a profitable run, he sailed to the United States, where he operated preemie exhibits in fairgrounds and international exhibitions, with a permanent facility in Coney Island. In 1943, Couney's final year of operation, Cornell Hospital opened New York's first neonatal unit. Many readers will share Raffel's admiration of Couney, who never charged patients and paid obsessive attention to diet and hygiene (unfortunately, rivals were not so attentive). Survivors loved him, and while some physicians denounced the commercialization of his project, others approved, and he is considered a founder of American neonatology.The book's title is no hype; this is a startling account of an improbable huckster who made his living promoting a lifesaving device.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172052866
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	07/31/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

"All the World Loves a Baby"
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "The Strange Case of Dr. Couney"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Dawn Raffel.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Videos