Memories of Chicago

For me, it all began one autumn day in 1950, during my third year of medical school. We had studied obstetrics for a full semester, after which the University of Wisconsin sent us, in small groups, to spend a month at a place called “The Chicago Maternity Center.” It was located on the corner of Maxwell Street and Newberry Avenue, on the south side of Chicago, which we considered to be a slum and a no-man's-land.

The building was an old warehouse with beds on the second floor and a telephone dispatching office on the first. During our first night there, we heard gunshots in the neighborhood; our suspicions were confirmed in the morning, when the newspaper reported that 3 people had been murdered within 2 blocks of the center.

Each of us was teamed up with a “senior” student, one who had been there for 2 weeks. We were the “juniors” for our first 2 weeks. Our mission was to deliver babies in …