It had to be the late 1940s.

Grandpa was very ill and they took him to the hospital. When they couldn’t figure out what it was, the doctor contacted Cleveland Clinic, and Grandpa was transferred there. He was in the hospital from July until the early part of October. My mother drove Grandma over to Cleveland Clinic every afternoon, and she brought me along most days. 

I remember it so vividly, especially the liquid in tubes. One color would come up one way and go around in the tube and then another color would come up and chase it around. 

When they released Grandpa, Dad said he didn’t know how we were going to come up with the money for the bill. He went to the finance department, and when he came home, he was crying. My mother figured we were going to lose our house. But after all these months in the hospital, Cleveland Clinic said, “Oh, there’s no bill.” They didn’t charge a penny. They said, “We’ve learned from this and published the case in a medical research journal.” I’m 88 years old, so for that to stick in my head all those years — it was pretty special. And Grandpa survived a lot of years after that. 

 

According to Rita Breuer, her grandfather was one of the first patients to undergo colostomy irrigation treatment.