Phillips County Museum News for Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Carol Jean Young was 13 years old when a life-changing accident occurred.

The date was November 8th of 1950, when Carol was at her farmhouse in Wagner with her stepbrother Wilbur (30 years), her brother Dannie (10 years), and her sister Donna (6 years). Wilbur had been lifting a pail of fuel oil to the top of the stove to put more into it. The pail caught against the hot stove and spilled. Immediately the burning fuel was dripping down onto the floor and the fuel had caught on fire, as the Young family started towards the door. While running Carol slipped and plummeted to the ground, landing in the scorching fuel.

Everyone had tried to open the door, but they couldn’t due to the heat and gas pressure, so Dannie broke a window, and they opened the door that way. Wilbur then told the kids to drive to the neighbors’ house, while he would stay and try to fight the fire. The neighbors rushed the kids to the hospital as soon as they got there.

Carol Jean had third-degree burns from her ribs to her ankles, second-degree burns on each arm and hand, along with second-degree burns on her face. The doctors said that wholly, the amount of unburned skin was about equal to a large sheet of paper, and she was not expected to live. As soon as the doctors and nurses could, they gave her blood. However, Malta did not have enough of the blood she needed available in the hospital, so the Red Cross Blood Bank in Great Falls was sent down quickly to the Malta Hospital. Since around the 20th day, she had been skin-grafted at regular intervals, borrowing skin from unburned areas, where second degree burns were healed.

There were a few complications with infections that were constantly fought. The Red Cross had also sent serum albumin, which is a product obtained from the blood that was necessary for any degree of recovery, and she went through about one bottle a week. She had been in the hospital from November 8th, 1950, to February of 1951 when the article made it to the newspaper.

Fun fact of the week-The Red Cross has won more Nobel Peace Prizes than anyone else. Have a good week!

Stop by the Phillips County Museum to look at the Hospital files and read old articles. We are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.