CME FINALLY EARNS CLASS B RATING
On November 13, 1917, Dr. Nathan P. Colwell, secretary of the American Medical Association’s Council on Medical Education, inspected the College of Medical Evangelists (now Loma Linda University School of Medicine) thoroughly and told Dr. Magan as he said goodbye, “I will do my utmost to secure the raise in rating for you.” The next day Colwell called Magan to announce that a Class B rating for CME could be assured.
A jubilant Dr. Magan immediately telegraphed the Surgeon General, requesting the return of drafted CME medical students. He then wired each draftee: “DR. COLWELL HAS BEEN HERE AND HAS RAISED OUR RATING TO B GRADE. COUNCIL ON MEDICAL EDUCATION WILL CONFIRM. TELEGRAM ALREADY GONE TO SURGEON GENERAL RELATIVE TO YOU…. LETTER FOLLOWS. LEAVE MATTER IN MY HANDS, AND KEEP CONFIDENTIAL. WILL RUSH MATTERS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.”
In his follow-up letter Magan reported that he had spent the longest and hardest seven weeks of his life trying to arrange for rights entitled to student physicians in good standing under the ruling of the Surgeon General of the United States Army. Later Magan recounted to the CME Constituency the seven-week struggle and suspense he endured while walking by faith with God: “There is something about the experience of having the burden of a great crisis rolled upon you when you are all alone which drives you very close to God. I was on my way to save the only medical school in all the world which bore the name of God…. From office to office and from one great man to another I went, but nowhere did I get a word of comfort. I remember one bitter cold day, with driving wind and snow, disheartened and not knowing what next to do, I left the office of the Surgeon General and sat down on the stone curbing supporting the iron fence around the White House. There I sat and prayed and there came into my mind some of the closing words in Solomon’s great prayer at the dedication of the temple—“and let these my words…be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, that He maintain the cause of His servant….”
“I remembered the prayers which so often fell from the lips of Ellen G. White, of John Burden, of many another soul who struggled to launch the school. I, too, had prayed and it came into my mind that prayers do not die when they leave our lips; they are “nigh unto the Lord our God day and night.” I knew that prayers offered long ago were still doing duty before the great white throne, and I was comforted.”
On February 3, 1918, the Council on Medical Education unanimously confirmed Colwell’s recommendation to upgrade CME’s rating to Class B. Now not only could former students return from military camps, but also the College could grow and, more importantly, fulfill its mission. Both faculty and General Conference officers acknowledged the new “B” rating to be temporary. CME would need to continue to improve its physical plant and the quality of its educational program in order to earn the necessary “A” rating.
In the meantime, the new 194-bed San Bernardino County Hospital opened in February 1918. In time, CME students, faculty and graduates experienced major involvement at the facility.
On February 28, 1918, CME approved the acceptance of a limited number of CME interns at its hospitals in Los Angeles and Loma Linda and asked other SDA sanitariums in the United States to accept its interns. And because CME could not have survived without the ongoing financial support of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Board also adopted a resolution recognizing the denomination’s support. “Whereas, The North American Division Conference has so generously given one cent of the twenty-cent-a-week Fund for the year ending December 31, 1917, amounting to $40,331.72, to the College of Medical Evangelists to be used exclusively toward the liquidation of its indebtedness, therefore, Resolved, That we express our appreciation to God and to the members of the committee for this large gift….”
On Sunday, April 21, 1918, CME dedicated its 64-bed Ellen G. White Memorial Hospital in East Los Angeles. It had been built from funds raised mostly by Mrs. White’s sisters in the church, under the leadership of Mrs. Steven N. Haskell, and with administrative support of Dr. Percy T. Magan.
Eventually nine buildings filled a city block to capacity: four for patients’ beds; one for an outpatient clinic; one for operating room, X-ray, and administrative offices; and another the admitting office, kitchen, dining room, library, and class and conference rooms. The remaining two, originally designed to be dormitories, soon housed the hospital store and offices for administration and physicians.
While Dr. Percy T. Magan delivered the dedicatory address, for the new Ellen G. White Memorial Hospital on Sunday, April 21, 1918, a major earthquake shook all of Southern California. In a letter to Mrs. Lida Scott, Magan reported his experience: “In the middle of our dedicatory exercises, while I was making a little speech, there came the biggest earthquake that this part of California has had in 18 years. The speaker’s stand swayed violently beneath us. For a moment I hardly realized what was happening. Then it became very apparent. It looked for a moment or so as if there would be a panic amongst the tremendous crowd of people, but we got them stilled and quieted, and soon the program went on the same as before. The earthquake did not do a particle of damage to any of our hospital buildings, but a number of the buildings downtown in the city of Los Angeles were badly knocked about….
To be continued…