I read the other day Dr. Harold Stout had passed away. I would be amiss should I allow the loss of this kind, gentle man pass without making a few comments regarding his contributions to the Brewster community and the welfare of the people of the area. I had a very unique connection with Dr. Stout, he literally saved my life on Jan. 6, 1944.
At the age of 10, I was a passenger on a school bus headed for school at Coulee City from where we lived at Leahy Junction. About 10 miles south of Leahy on what is now State Route 17, we had a head on collision with a truck that was traveling on the wrong side of the road in dense fog. I suffered lacerations and a severe skull fracture. After a short time we were removed to a local farm house where they called Dr. Stout in Mansfield. In those days, Dr. Stout came to Mansfield every Thursday to see patients and this just happened to be a Thursday. Even in the dense fog, Dr. Stout and his wife arrived in a short time. Although I had been conscious for a few minutes at the scene of the accident, I was out at the time he arrived. Taking vital signs, Dr. Stout found that my blood pressure was dropping and my pulse and respiration were racing. I was going down and out for the last time, due to loss of blood volume and shock. Dr. Stout always carried a quart of blood plasma in a dry mix form in those days. He quickly set up the plasma and started giving me a transfusion. He told me in later years that he never saw such a dramatic turn around when he began to restore the blood volume. He also said, I was at the best possible age for stamina and vitality, a child that age who is in good health can take a terrible beating.
Dr. Stout would not move me until the transfusion was complete, which took a few hours. My father had made arrangements with State Patrolman Floyd Hansen, of Grand Coulee, to transport me to the hospital in Omak in a 1939 Ford "Paddy Wagon" which Dr. Stout rode as well. I was in surgery for three hours with Dr. Stout in attendance, assisted by Doctors MacCain and Dewey. Again, Dr. Stout's expertise came into play. The laceration on my upper lip, which cut completely through to the teeth was jagged and irregular. He did a superb job of getting all the pieces back together correctly. In fact, many people used to say Dr. Stout would have been an excellent plastic surgeon. I had been unconscious all day.
I was kept in the Omak hospital for 13 days due to the skull fracture, and then released to go back home to the farm. For me, one of the worst things was missing the remainder of the school term and being set back a year in school. But the good side was that I had a complete recovery and live a normal, healthy life.
There were many blessing occurred that day. It was a Thursday and Dr. Stout was in Mansfield only 15 miles away, I would have never survived long enough for a doctor to come from a greater distance. He had that quart of blood plasma with him. As mentioned, I was at the best possible age to survive such a trauma. He almost immediately diagnosed the fractured skull, which was crucial to the way I was treated and transported. And last but not least, Dr. Stout was Dr. Stout, a dedicated, devoted and skillful young man. In later years while in the State Patrol and assigned to Brewster I had many occasions to see Dr. Stout at work on trauma patients. He always exercised that same kind, gentle, quite expertise and personality which I believe is often the best medicine there is. On the 50th anniversary of that accident in 1994, I called Dr. Stout to thank him just one more time for saving my life. He said, "I was just thinking about that accident today." I find it remarkable that out of all the cases he had treated by then, that one came to mind on that day. I ask him, "Doctor, how close did you really come to losing me?" He replied in that quick crisp voice of his, "Oh, about 20 minutes." Twenty minutes compared to the 66 additional years he gave me! How do you thank a man for that?
Now Dr. Stout has gone to reap those great rewards that we who are left behind could never adequately provide. May God bless him and his family.
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