Page 135 - (DK) Danger! Open with Extreme Caution!

Unable to get samples When New York health ofFicial The ambulance takes her Mary is taken to a hospital
from Mary, Soper starts to Dr. S. Josephine Baker—along to the detention suite for infectious diseases
reconstruct her work history. with five police ofFicers and at a nearby hospital— on North Brother Island,
an ambulance—visits Mary, with Baker sitTing on betweEn the Bronx and
she lunges at Baker, before her during the trip Rikers Island.
runNning ofF. because she continues
So, if 22 people got
sick, with one dead… to hit out.
and they alL ate... Let go of me—
I’ve done nothing get me out
wrong! you litTle of here!
$%*!

madam, if you
HE finds that for the past bite me again… got it!
six years she has worked for
eight families—seven had typhoid FinalLy, a fecal sample She remains there for
outbreaks, including the Park It takes them five hours to taken from mary the next threE years in a
Avenue home IN manhatTan where locate Mary, who is hiding in shows high levels of smalL cotTage (where she
she is working. a closet. typhoid bacteria. coOks ONLY for herself).

In 1909, Mary sues the city of New York Mary spends threE years in near By 1915, Mary has long since
and demands her release. She loses isolation at Riverside hospital, but disapPeared from the Health
her case. Later that year, mary comes with public sympathy on her side, Department’s “radar” and is
to public atTention through a magazine she is released and given work in again working as a coOk, this
feature, which leads journalists to give a New York laundry. time in a maternity hospital.
her the nickname “Typhoid Mary.”

holy moley! I thought I here’s
I once had her smelLed a rat. a sandwich, thanks,
ice cream. …back at doctor. mary.
here i am… the botTom of
the pile.

for our
sakes!
don’t
eat it!

typhoid mary! Within weEks, at least 25 doctors,
read alL nurses, and stafF have falLen ilL
about her! Once again, she resents her low with typhoid. two have died.
status and miserable pay.

This time, AcCused of endangering over time, mary’s health When Mary dies of pneumonia, aged 70,
inNocents, Mary is returned to begins to sufFer. Despite having newspapers note that there are
North Brother Island, where she lives a stroke, she recovers enough 237 other typhoid carRiers living
alone. She is given work at the hospital to continue baking. under observation—none of them were
in the bacteriology lab, where she treated as badly as mary, but then
washes botTles. she also continues none of them were as proactive in
baking and selLing cakes! spreading this deadly disease.
i have a lovely no, mary—
cake in the oven. thanks, but no.
sure you
can’t stay?
these botTles are
a real pain to clean...
and i stilL have
another 199
to do!

She seldom has visitors, and those She is buried in Saint Raymond’s
who do come are always careful Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.
to leave before dinNertime!

TYPHOID MARY 135
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