A War Story

The Greenwich Health Officer called the new bacteriologist into his office. 

“John, I realize you’ve just started here after Fred Remer got drafted, and we don’t know how long we’ve got you, but there’s a situation.  The Army Induction Center has reported that a lot of potential recruits are being rejected for service because they’ve got TB or syphilis.  What we’re going to do is send around a mobile X-ray van that the State provided and do chest X-rays of the men in all the factories and foundries in town- there’s eleven of them, with about 2300 men working in them.  I need you to do confirmatory testing for TB and also blood

 tests for syphilis.  Can you do this?

John Redys replied, “Yes, I can.  I’ll do acid-fast staining on the sputum samples, and I’ll apply to the state for certification to do Kahn tests for syphilis on the blood samples. Bring ‘em on.”

And this was how John Redys spent his time at the Greenwich Department of Health Laboratory in those days during World War II.  He would place the slides with sputum smears on a rack and literally boil the thick cranberry-colored carbol fuschin stain into them with a Bunsen burner.  He would then counterstain them with methylene blue, and observe them under a microscope.  The background looked like clouds floating in a blue sky, but he was looking for the telltale cherry-red rod-shaped bacteria that had caused the spots in the lungs of the men who were screened for tuberculosis. 

He obtained permission from the state to do the syphilis testing himself, so that the samples would not have to be sent to Hartford and there would be a faster turnaround time.  He would spin the blood samples in a centrifuge to separate out the serum, and test it with a protein that would cause clumps to form in any sample from a man who had syphilis.

He performed over 400 acid-fast stains that year, and one hundred sixty syphilis tests, in addition to his other duties.

The young bacteriologist was himself drafted the next year, and he served his country in the Army.  After the war, he was not able to return to his old job at the Greenwich Department of Health, so he went to work for the State of Connecticut Public Health Laboratory in Hartford.  Starting as a bacteriologist, he enjoyed a distinguished career there, publishing papers on streptococcal bacteria and eventually becoming director of the state laboratory. 

Things came full circle in 1977 when during a time of assessment, the Greenwich Department of Health asked him to provide input on the development of its laboratory.  He sent them a letter outlining his advice, recommending appropriate tests that the laboratory could offer to serve the public better. 

Public Health work is done at different levels: local, state and national.  John Redys contributed to the health of the community both in Greenwich and throughout the state in his career.

Sources:

Adams, 1978

Greenwich Health Department Annual Reports: 1937, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944