Reflections on 1979 Accident at TMI

I will start with some background. In March 1979 I was a Pediatric Orthopaedic surgeon on the faculty of the Department of Orthopaedics at the Penn State College of Medicine. Half of my practice was at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Through an arrangement with the Pennsylvania Department of Health the other 50% of my time was serving as Medical Director of the Elizabethtown Hospital for Children and Youth. The Elizabethtown facility was located off route 230 just west of the town of Elizabethtown.  This hospital was built in 1930 and was originally called the State Hospital for Crippled Children at Elizabethtown. It was constructed to care for children with all varieties of musculoskeletal disorders but particularly those suffering from bone and joint infections and the residuals of poliomyelitis. In the 1930s and ‘40s the hospital would house up to 200 children with an average length of stay of a year and a half.

the information that we were given concerning the crisis was spotty, inconsistent, and, more often than not, inaccurate

By 1970 with the advent of antibiotic therapies and the development of the polio vaccines, the need for long-term inpatient pediatric orthopaedic care decreased dramatically. Outpatient clinics were still busy but average daily inpatient census dropped to 20 to 30 and lengths of stay decreased as well. By 1979 we were transitioning the mission of the hospital into a rehabilitation facility serving both children and adults, caring for patients with brain and spinal cord injuries and a variety of neurological disorders. The Elizabethtown Hospital was just over 6 miles from the TMI Nuclear Power Plant, the Hershey Medical Center about 7 ½.

The events that lead to the partial meltdown began in the early hours of Wednesday, March 28. From the start and throughout the following week the information that we were given concerning the crisis was spotty, inconsistent, and, more often than not, inaccurate.  As physicians and administrators we were responsible for the safety of our patients but forced to make decisions with inadequate information. The exact chronology of events is fuzzy after 40 years but as I recall I was summoned to the E-town Hospital on Thursday night. A civil defense officer from the town had come with ambulances intending to evacuate our patients. The Executive Director and I felt there was insufficient information to justify moving patients at that time and declined to allow the evacuation.

We were told to immediately return the patients and reopen

The following day the Governor advised an evacuation of pregnant women and children from a five-mile radius which he then extended to 20 miles. My wife and our three children went to Pittsburgh to stay with my in-laws but with patients to care for I could not leave. On Friday we worked to discharge in an orderly manner as many patients as could be safely sent to their homes. All of my patients from the Hershey Medical Center were discharged and at the E-town Hospital only three patients that required continued inpatient care remained. Those three patients were transferred to the Ephrata Hospital and we formally closed the Elizabethtown Hospital. The next day I was contacted by an officer of the Department of Health concerned that news of the evacuation of the E-town facility would cause increased public concern. We were told to immediately return the patients and reopen. We decided to ignore that order and the hospital remained closed until the crisis was declared over several days later.

In the 60 years that the Elizabethtown Hospital existed, I was the only Medical Director to close its doors and I did it twice.

In 1990 the programs at the Elizabethtown Hospital, pediatric orthopaedic and rehabilitation, were moved into a newly constructed South Addition of the Hershey Medical Center. Control of the E-town facility was returned to the Commonwealth and became the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Training Academy. In the 60 years that the Elizabethtown Hospital existed, I was the only Medical Director to close its doors and I did it twice.

Edwards P. Schwentker, MD