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This is how the new respiratory air therapy works: The Airnergy device continuously converts the air oxygen into an energy-rich state (singlet state) - the physiologically active form of oxygen that the human body already knows. This is achieved via a patented process, which technologically imitates the natural processes of photosynthesis.

My first session of hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

 

It was quite snug in the chamber with four of us in there. Three patients and one nurse. The next day there were five of us.

 

It was quite a surreal experience. After the door was closed the chamber became quite warm as it was pressurised to 2.3 atmospheres. We were offered boiled sweets and water to help us 'pop' our ears. I was advised to hold my nose and blow to pop my ears if sucking and swallowing didn't work.

 

When the right pressure had been achieved the nurse handed me my mask and fastened it for me. For the next 45 minutes I breathed pure oxygen while trying to read a book. But my mind kept wandering. We'd been told that it didn't matter how we breathed, just so long as we breathed. But should I take deep breaths? Would that get even more oxygen into me? If I stopped thinking about my breathing - and I wasn't sure I could as I could hear each breathe that I took and, I was sure, the breaths that the other patients were taking - if I didn't think about it might i forget to breathe? I have been known to forget to breathe but only when coming round from anaesthetic after an operation or after midazolam at the dentist. I didn't have any pains or feel strange in any way at the moment (other than my thoughts running around all over the place) but would that change as the minutes ticked away and the oxygen saturated my body? (It didn't).

 

Forty minutes later I heard a clang and a whooshing, sucking sound. A few minutes after that the nurse announced that it was break time and we could take our masks off. I was then given a cup of tea, two cream crackers and a slice of processed cheese. They had been delivered through a hatch in the wall and that had been the cause of the clang and the whoosh. After ten minutes the cups were collected, the nurse promised that "the second half goes a lot quicker" and I was helped to put my mask back on. At this point I realised that there was a small fancy clock on the outside ledge of the porthole to my right so I could see the time.

 

The nurse also told me that when the pressure is brought back to normal (known as 'going back up') she would use her own mask and at that point it would start to get cold. There was a blanket over the arm of my chair and I might want to put that on when she put her mask on.

 

So, one down, another 39 to go.

 

There is a photo of me wearing the mask (again, posed for the camera as none are allowed in the chamber when it is in operation) here.

 

I wouldn't usually blur parts of photos but I don't think the chamber in the basement of a hospital can be considered a public place where people might expect their photograph to be taken and I didn't want to explain the whole flickr/365 thing which I would have had to do if I asked these guys for permission to put photographs of them on the internet.

 

Monday, 9th January 2017,

Phone Book ad from the early 1940s.

 

The first location of the Peninsula Garage was near Bayshore Highway, near Main and Bradford today. This section of Bayshore is now Veteran’s Blvd. The location near the highway made it easier for both the towing business and the ambulance business to respond quickly. When they moved to 432 Middlefield Rd. they were about the same distance from the highway as they were at Main and Bradford. There were no freeways then. The highways all had stoplights at major intersections. Bayshore Highway had only two lanes in each direction with no center divider. There were very few buildings along old Bayshore but there were a lot of billboards.

 

www.sfgenealogy.com/sanmateo/history/ambulance/smambulanc...

 

As remembered by

Michael Ratliff Lutz

 

Introduction:

When I began researching my family’s history in Redwood City, California in the year 2004 I was certain that I would be able to find a lot of information about my uncle, Ralph H. Ratliff since his death in March of 1963 was front-page news in The Redwood City Tribune. To my surprise, he was nearly a forgotten man. The local historical societies only had a couple of old newspaper clippings. I only had the clippings and photos that my mother, Nina Mardel Ratliff (Lutz) (Womer), had saved in her scrapbook over the years to work with. With the help of a few relatives I have been able to reconstruct the story of Ralph Ratliff and his Peninsula Ambulance Service.

 

Ratliff Enterprises as described in a 1961 Redwood City Tribune article:

 

Twelve women in three shifts work around the clock with their fingers virtually on the pulse of a vast segment of professional and business life. These women answer a monthly average of 38,000 telephone calls.

They are employees of Ratliff Enterprises, Inc a family owner corporation occupying its own two-story building at 1260 Marshall Street. Ratliff Enterprises operates the Redwood City Telephone Answering Service, which embraces the Sequoia District Physicians Exchange. It also operates the Peninsula Ambulance Service and the Peninsula Hospital Rental Service. Its ambulances respond to 500 calls monthly. The County of San Mateo subsidizes peninsula Ambulance Service.

 

Its rental service rents out anything needed for the care of patients in the home…such things as oxygen, refrigerated tents, wheel chairs, therapy lamps, traction equipment and beds.

 

The officers of the corporation are Ralph H. Ratliff, president: his wife Irene I. Ratliff: vice president their two sons and a daughter, K. Harold Ratliff and Ralph J. Ratliff, and Mrs. Virginia Collins, directors. Mrs. Ratliff manages the answering service with Mrs. Collins as the assistant manager. Harold is the manager and bookkeeper of the ambulance and rental divisions.

 

Mateo County uses a subsidy system with Peninsula Ambulance Service so they could discontinue their own emergency ambulance service. If the company couldn’t collect from individuals, the county would reimburse them $20 per call for all service ordered through police systems. Most calls came through the Sheriffs Office.

 

In 1960 Peninsula Ambulance received a subsidy of $18,000, a considerable savings compared to what it would have cost to operate their own system. Ambulance employees were taught advanced Red Cross first aide, basic obstetrics and oxygen therapy.

 

As to obstetrics, Ralph Ratliff personally delivered 10 babies while working shifts with his ambulance crews, three of these births occurred in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It just happened that 10 mothers waited until the very last minute. Unlike in the storybooks, none of the babies were named after him.

 

The ambulance fees are $25 per call plus supplies used at the accident scene like splints and oxygen, and $12.50 if a second patient on a stretcher was involved. A third person with minor injuries could ride with the driver for free.

 

I was able to find reports of two of those baby deliveries in the San Mateo Times archives, one in La Honda on July 14, 1949, and another in the back of the ambulance on August 21 1957. It is true that neither baby was named Ralph after my uncle, but then again, they were both girls.

Oops, I nearly missed the boy he delivered on July 2, 1954. He wasn’t named Ralph either.

 

Recent generations probably don’t realize that emergency medical service used to be provided by private ambulance companies. Until the late 1970s when EMTs were stationed in firehouses, private ambulance services like Peninsula Ambulance Service and Harold Ratliff’s California Ambulance Service would respond to medical emergencies. Ambulance personnel received advanced first aide training from the American Red Cross. In fact, Ralph Ratliff was a first aide instructor for the Red Cross for several years. The classes were taught at the Sequoia Chapter of the American Red Cross, 3540 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park. There were six, two-hour sessions taught in the evening, ending in a Red Cross certificate for those who passed the course.

 

I’m probably not the best person to tell the story of Peninsula Ambulance since my contact with this part of my family was rather inconsistent over the years. My mother was half owner of Home Creek Resort at Huntington lake in Fresno County so except for two years in 1951 and 1952 when we wintered over with Ralph Ratliff’s family in Redwood City, my contact was limited to a couple of weeks on vacation every year. In my senior high school year, 1962-63 we moved to Redwood City, but that was just a few months before my uncle died. There was a time when you couldn’t go anywhere in Redwood City without bumping into a member of the Ratliff family, but now it seems I’m the only one left. Fortunately, my mother saved numerous newspaper articles and photographs that should be helpful.

 

Ralph H. Ratliff was born in Tallula, Illinois on November 05, 1903 to George O. and Carrie Ratliff of Jacksonville, Illinois. The family, including his older brother Frank Jerry Ratliff, and younger sister and my mother, Nina Mardel Ratliff later moved to Los Angeles then to San Francisco in the 1920s. My grandfather, George O. Ratliff was in the real estate business but Ralph found working on cars more to his liking, so for several years he worked as an auto mechanic in San Francisco.

 

Prior to leaving Los Angeles, Ralph had a brief marriage to Mildred Hensley, and a son Ralph H. Ratliff Jr., born October 14, 1922. Ralph Jr. moved to San Francisco with the rest of the family and was cared for by my mother and grandmother until Ralph married Irene I. Haseltine of Redwood City in Palo Alto, California on May 8, 1925. Their first son, Kenneth “Harold” Ratliff was born November 04, 1925. They had two additional children, Ralph Junior Ratliff, born January 25, 1927 and Virginia Lois Ratliff, born May 21, 1928.

 

Irene Haseltine was a Redwood City girl, her emigrated to Redwood City from Wisconsin in the early 1900s. Ralph and Irene Ratliff continued to live in San Francisco until 1939 when, with financial assistance from his father George Ratliff, he opened the Peninsula Garage in Redwood City.

 

The first location of the Peninsula Garage was near Bayshore Highway, near Main and Bradford today. This section of Bayshore is now Veteran’s Blvd. The location near the highway made it easier for both the towing business and the ambulance business to respond quickly. When they moved to 432 Middlefield Rd. they were about the same distance from the highway as they were at Main and Bradford. There were no freeways then. The highways all had stoplights at major intersections. Bayshore Highway had only two lanes in each direction with no center divider. There were very few buildings along old Bayshore but there were a lot of billboards

 

Towing was a large part of the Peninsula Garage business. It was the towing business that got Ralph Ratliff started in the ambulance business. Ralph’s tow trucks were arriving at auto accident scenes long before the ambulance arrived. In 1944, Mickey Collins, then chief of police, asked my uncle to provide the community with some kind of ambulance service. Ralph purchased a used ambulance from a taxicab company, took first aide classes, and went into business. It’s not clear why a taxi company had an ambulance.

 

At first the Peninsula Garage and Peninsula Ambulance coexisted at the same address at 450 Main St., Redwood City. They also shared the same phone number for a while which probably caused some confusion, but there is no record of a tow truck responding to an ambulance call.

 

During the early 1940s the Ratliff family lived on Oxford Street in Redwood City. Oxford Street was pretty much out in the country then. There were very few other houses around. Later they moved to a large white house at 432 Middlefield Rd. near the corner of old Bayshore Highway. That location is now a county parking lot. That house also served as the base for the ambulance service.

 

This article about my cousin Harold Ratliff’s wedding reception pretty much sums up the Ratliff family in Redwood City during World War 2. My mother was living with the Ratliff’s on Oxford Street then. My father was away in the army and I was just born a month before or so before the article was written so it was easier for her to live with relatives. I was at this reception but don’t remember much.

 

Ironically, I was born in San Francisco. My family was from San Francisco but by 1944 my grand parents had moved to Burlingame and my mother was living in Redwood City. They all decided to go to a fireworks display at Kezar stadium in 1944, and that’s when and where I was born.

 

Redwood City Tribune, August 1944:

A large wedding party and reception was held in honor of newly wedded Mr. and Mrs. Harold Kenneth Ratliff, the former Miss Virginia Alberta French of San Francisco, at the home of the groom’s grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Alva Haseltine of 479 Sequoia Ave. last week.

Because of Harold’s short leave from the navy, in which he is a seaman second class, the couple was married in Reno on Aug. 23. They met several years ago when Virginia visited her aunt, Mrs. Tom Kelly of Redwood City.

 

For her wedding the bride chose the navy colors of navy blue and white. She wore a navy blue suit with white accessories and a gardenia corsage.

 

Harold is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R.H. Ratliff of 1474 Oxford St. He is the brother of Ralph and Virginia Ratliff who attend Sequoia High School and Ralph Harold Ratliff Jr. who is now in the U.S. Army at Camp Haan. Harold also attended Sequoia High School.

 

At the reception the table was decorated in blue and white centered with a tiered wedding cake topped with a miniature sailor and his bride. Many gifts were received by the newlyweds.

 

Attending the reception were Mr. and Mrs. George Ratliff, grandparents of the groom, Mrs. Nina Mardel Lutz, aunt, and son Michael Lutz; Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Keyser, aunt and uncle, and cousins, Bonnie, Phillip and Jimmie Keyser; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Haseltine, aunt and uncle, and Neal and Dale Haseltine; Mrs. Jasper Haseltine, aunt, and Joanne and Freddie Haseltine, and Sgt. and Mrs. Herbert England, cousins, and daughter, Sharon Lee.

 

Also attending were Sgt. and Mrs. John Whittington, Mr. and Mrs. Tony Alvis and sons, Mr. Norman Peterson and Kenneth Peterson, USN.

 

Unable to attend were Mr. Jasper Haseltine, uncle, who is now overseas with the merchant marine, Sgt. Eddie Thoemke of the U.S. Army, and Mrs. Thoemke, uncle and aunt; and Sgt. Richard Lutz, uncle, who is currently stationed in Roswell, New Mexico.

 

This is my cousin Virginia (Ginny) Ratliff behind their home at 1474 Oxford St in Redwood City about in the late 1940s. That area behind her would be covered with houses by 1950.

Unfortunately, Harold Ratliff’s Marriage to Virginia French only lasted a couple of years. He later married Carol Sufczynski Dierks of Redwood City on March 26,1949.

 

Around 1948 the Ratliff family and the business moved to a new location at 432 Middlefield Road, now a parking lot for the San Mateo County Offices. The garage was sold and they purchased an answering service, Sequoia District Physicians Exchange.

 

Both the businesses and the family occupied the same large house. The answering service occupied what was a large living room. Fortunately the house must have had two living rooms, because there was another room of equal size with a connecting door. The upstairs served as quarters for the ambulance crews.

 

There was enough room in the house to accommodate my mother and me the winters of 1951 and 1952 during the off-season for my mother’s business, Home Creek Resort at Huntington Lake, CA. From November to March we lived in Redwood City. I attended Monroe School, and mom worked shifts at the answering service.

 

On October 08, 1949 my uncle Ralph was nearly killed in a three-car pile up on old Pacheco Pass. He was on his way to Home Creek Resort at Huntington Lake in Fresno County. The resort was co-owned by my mother, and uncle Frank “Jerry” Ratliff. Every fall the family gathered at the resort during deer season. I can remember my uncle in what was nearly a full body cast lying in a hospital bed in the living room of that house on Middlefield.

 

Getting to Monroe School was an easy walk then because Bradford connected Middlefield Rd. and Allerton St. Ralph Junior Ratliff and his family lived at 730 Allerton diagonally across from Monroe School so they were available to point me in the right direction when I got lost my first day. In one of those little coincidences that happen now and then, my cousin’s landlady at 730 Allerton was Mrs. Mary Tesolin, the mother of Carmen Tesolin, my future wife, though I didn’t actually meet her until 1963. In 1955, my cousin Ralph Junior Ratliff and family lived in the old carriage house on property at 726-730 Allerton Street. It sat next to an old farmhouse also owned by Mary “Sironi” Tesolin, Carmen’s mother.

 

Both of Ralph Ratliff’s sons worked shifts for the ambulance service as well as working other jobs, so Ralph Jr. and Harold were always descending the stairs to raid the refrigerator. One of Harold’s sons, Kenny, also lived there. Ralph and Irene Ratliff assumed the responsibility of caring for Kenneth Ratliff after Harold’s divorce from his first wife Virginia. They continued to care for Kenny until he joined the Navy in 1965.

 

Kenny and I slept in the glassed in front porch of the house. I remember it being quite cold, especially since my aunt Irene insisted on an open window, even in mid winter. Something about the health benefits of fresh air. It was also noisy. The police radio was always on in the living room for some reason. I didn’t understand why the radio wasn’t upstairs with the ambulance guys. The house was also very close to Bayshore Highway, and there was a stop light at Middlefield and Bayshore. Trucks that stopped at the light had to rev up their engines to get moving again. On the other side were the trains. The tracks were, a few blocks away, but the trains ran all night. I don’t think I got a lotta sleep.

 

In the late 1950s Harold and Ralph Junior Ratliff purchased the Flying “A” service station at the corner of Middlefield and Bayshore. Ralph Sr. helped with the financing.

 

In 1959 Ralph Junior Ratliff left the business and eventually moved his family to Oregon leaving Harold Ratliff the sole owner of the business.

 

In the late 1950s the County of San Mateo decided it needed the block that housed both Peninsula Ambulance Service and Ratliff’s Flying “A” so the Ambulance Business moved to a new location, and built a new building at 1260 Marshall St., and Harold Ratliff rejoined the Ambulance Company. The building on Marshall is still there and currently occupied by Aloha Flowers (2005).

 

Before the Kaiser Medical Center was completed in 1968 we used to set off 4th of July fireworks in front of the Ambulance Service. Kaiser was virtually built in our front yard. During the 1960s while Kaiser was being built my entire family worked at 1260 Marshall. My uncle ran the businesses, my cousins drove ambulances, and my mother ran the medical supply for a while. My aunt ran Sequoia Physicians & Surgeons Exchange in the same building. I even worked there when I was in high school in 1963.

 

After I was discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1967 I used the skills that I learned as a hospital corpsman to moonlight for various ambulance services while I was attending San Francisco State University. The skills required by civilian ambulance employees were nearly identical to those skills used by a field medic (corpsman) with the U.S. Marines. I worked in the operating room at the old Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. That made it possible for me to moonlight some nights and weekends for Bob’s Ambulance Service in Oakland while still on active duty.

 

Often, history is what is going on in the background of a photograph so the following photographs not only show some vintage Peninsula Ambulances from the 1940s and 50s, but also shows a large facility that belonged to the Mobil Oil Company. The Mobil facility was directly across Middlefield from both Peninsula Ambulance and the Flying “A” station. You can also see a tower appears close but was actually several blocks away at Frank’s Tannery. Just across the Highway from the Flying “A” was the Redwood City Rodeo Grounds. That’s about where the Department of Motor Vehicles is located now.

 

In 1961 Ralph Ratliff was voted president of the California Ambulance Association. On September 6th of that same year the San Mateo Times reported that my uncle and a California Highway Patrol Officer named Fred Hagen climbed down a 400-foot cliff on Tunitas Road to rescue a 16-year-old boy who was thrown from a Jeep when it hit a tree. My uncle was 57 years old at the time and had several younger drivers on his payroll, but he enjoyed the work so much that he was still taking regular turns behind the wheel of the ambulance.

People forget that before Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and specialized rescue vehicles, ambulance services did it all. Peninsula Ambulance Service covered most of San Mateo County, from delivering a baby in La Honda to rescuing a teenager coastside. I remember hearing my uncle’s voice on the ambulance radio informing the hospital that he was coming in from Half Moon Bay with one up and two down. That meant that he had two patients on gurneys and one on a hammock like device used only in extreme emergencies.

 

In most cases there were no freeways, so when an ambulance was coming in from coastside, it was traveling narrow twisting roads often in the fog. Some of those roads are still no fun to drive today.

 

The old Five Points Hotel at 2015 El Camino Real was the location of frequent calls. There was always trouble and ambulance calls to that location were always seen as dangerous. My uncle used to always complain about employees being injured on calls to the hotel. Some of the legendary danger may have been exaggerated, but the Redwood City Police closed down the hotel in the early 1950s.

 

My uncle was credited with saving the life of a man whose throat had been cut in a knife fight in the “five points area” on January 17, 1955. Somehow he managed keep the man from bleeding to death from a severed jugular vein on the way to the hospital, this according to the San Mateo Times.

 

It wasn’t always people who were rescued. When a 16 year old boy hit a dog with his motor scooter in 1957, he not only delivered the boy with a broken leg to the hospital, but he also delivered the dog to a vet.

 

That same year Uncle Ralph had to descend on a sling from a crane into a concrete vat to rescue a worker with a fractured spine. The worker was a welder working on a Bayshore Freeway overpass when he leaned too far into the vat.

 

On May 17, 1962 Ralph Ratliff represented Redwood City at the annual hearing conducted by the California State Chamber of Commerce. The Issues were the completion of the Five Points Overpass, the Junipero Serra Freeway (280), the Skyline Freeway and the Bayfront Freeway (101). There was also resolution offered by the City of Half Moon Bay seeking to continue the so-called San Bruno Freeway (380) to Half Moon Bay.

 

I’m not sure where my uncle stood on the last issue. This was just a couple of years after the City of Pacifica was formed to keep from being annexed by San Bruno, and a couple of years before Pacifica tried to annex all of the communities of the coastside down to Princeton By the Sea. Development was popular then. There was even a plan to make Montara into another Linda Mar.

 

Unfortunately, his election to the new post came shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer. His death in March 1963 was front-page news in the Times Tribune on March 18, 1963:

 

Ralph H. Ratliff, whose Peninsula Ambulance Service has provided Redwood City’s emergency transportation for 19 years died Saturday afternoon after a long battle with cancer. Mr. Ratliff, 59, came here in 1939 to establish a garage and towing service at the corner of Main Street and Old Bayshore.

In 1944, Mickey Collins, then chief of police, told Mr. Ratliff that the community should be provided with some kind of ambulance service. Mr. Ratliff decided to go into the business. He began with one vehicle and today, with headquarters at 1260 Marshall St., has five.

 

A native of Springfield [actually Tallula], Ill., Mr. Ratliff came to Redwood City from San Francisco. He has been identified with many civic activities throughout the years, notably as the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Highway and Traffic Committee. It was for this group that he campaigned for the widening of Jefferson Ave. and Woodside Rd., the extension of Edgewood Rd. to Half Moon Bay, and many of the local provisions of the local in the proposed city-county highway bond issue.

 

Mr. Ratliff also was a member of the Redwood City Exchange club, Redwood City Elks lodge, Modern Woodmen of the World and United Commercial Travelers. He was a charter member and past president of the California Ambulance Association, and was awarded a 20-year pin as a first aide instructor by the Red Cross.

 

Mr. Ratliff’s family will continue to run the ambulance firm.

 

Survivors include his widow, Irene, at the family home, 1007 Katherine St.; Sons Ralph J., Menlo Park and Harold K., Redwood City; a daughter; Mrs. Virginia Collins, Los Altos and a son by a previous marriage, Ralph H. Ratliff Jr. of Los Angeles. A Sister, Mrs. Mardel Womer [My mother’s married name with her second husband] resides in Redwood City. There are 15 grandchildren.

 

Private Funeral Services were held at Lyng & Tinney Funeral Home, 717 Jefferson Ave. Mr. Ratliff willed his body to Stanford Medical School for research.

 

The family prefers contributions to the American Cancer Society, 1517 South B St., San Mateo.

 

And in another article on March 25, 1963:

Ralph H. Ratliff, A Valuable Citizen

It was no longer news to his friends when it appeared in Monday’s paper that Ralph H. Ratliff had succumbed. Mr. Ratliff had been stricken with cancer more than a year ago, and hope for survival disappeared long ago but Mr. Ratliff refused to give up.

He knew that there were many jobs to be done, and he was going to do his best to get some results while he was still able to do so.

 

Mr. Ratliff was one of the developers of an excellent ambulance for Peninsulans. He wasn’t merely satisfied to transport to the hospital; he became an expert in first aide and his careful handling of patients was in many cases the difference between life and death.

 

Mr. Ratliff didn’t confine himself to matter involving his own profession. He was civic minded, and in this too he put in his best effort. Hi thorough study of Redwood City’s street and traffic problems, made at the request of the Chamber of Commerce, has been used as a model by both city and county governments in planning for the future.

 

Much of his best work came after he knew that he would never be able to shake the cancer that was spreading through his body.

 

This effort and enthusiasm ….the will to keep working for the public’s benefit even while knowing that he would reap none of the benefits…made Ralph H. Ratliff one of Redwood City’s most valuable citizens.

 

The entire community shares with his family this deep loss.

 

The family tried to continue the business together, but as often happens in these situations, there was disagreement about how the business should be run, so Harold Ratliff established a competing service, California Ambulance.

 

Harold Ratliff in the California Ambulance Office about 1970

 

California Ambulance Service was moderately successful but the move by San Mateo County to station emergency medical responders to fire stations left only non-emergency transport work to private ambulance companies. Eventually, both Peninsula Ambulance Service and California Ambulance Service merged with Mercy Ambulance Service in Daly City to form Mercy-Peninsula Ambulance.

 

Irene Ratliff retired and moved to Oregon to be close to her children. Harold worked at Raychem in Menlo Park until his death on May 06, 1985. He died of a heart attack behind the wheel of his car on El Camino Real.

 

Times Tribune May 08, 1985

Harold Ratliff, 59, Known as “Ratliff the Magician” to scores of Peninsula children and church groups, and a resident of Redwood City for over 40 years, died Monday in Mills Memorial Hospital after a sudden illness. He was a native of San Francisco.

 

He was a Navy veteran of World War II and served in the Pacific. In recent years he worked for Raychem in Menlo Park.

 

As a magician he performed for churches, children’s parties and many organizations.

 

Survivors include his wife Carol, his wife of 37 years; his sons, Kenneth of San Jose and Donald and Robert of Oregon; daughters Donna Knerr of Texas, Sandra Ebaugh of Mountain View and Barbara Ferriera of Florida; brothers Ralph J. of Oregon and Ralph H. of Los Angeles; a sister, Virginia Collins of Pasadena; his mother, Irene Ratliff of Oregon.

 

Private services have been held with internment in Golden Gate National Cemetery at San Bruno under direction of the Redwood Chapel, Redwood City. The family suggests memorial gifts to the American Heart Association.

 

© Copyright 1996-2010 SFgenealogy. All rights reserved.

Gayle in HBOT(Hyperbaric oxygen therapy), to help get rid of her Lyme Disease.

Visit #Oxygen_International online and avail benefits of Hyperbaric Chamber. We offer #health_oriented and 100% #drug_free Oxygen Therapy Treatment for people all age groups. Talk to our health experts today for better health and fitness level.

 

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I took these photos inside the infectious ward of the Karol Jonschers Children's Hospital, Poznań. It was a time when epidemic armageddon caused by RSV and the next wave of covid was going through pediatric wards. All isolation rooms were then occupied by infected children under the care of a parent. In the corridor there are rows of cardboard boxes with overalls, spare beds. Some kids were treated with oxygen. Less than 2-year-old kid subjected to high-flow oxygen therapy. Only there were fewer ventilators here than in adults. But they also happened.

 

The photos would not have been made without help and kindness from the crew of Department VIII. Special thanks are due to prof. dr hab. n. med. Magdalena Figlerowicz and Karolina Samarzewska, MA, who agreed to the presence of a annoying man with a camera in their clinic.

 

Autmn/winter 22/23. Poznań, PL.

Constructed between 1905 and 1907 as part of the third phase of construction of the Speicherstadt (1899 to 1912), the four-story building is one of the most recognizable landmarks and oldest buildings in the historic warehouse complex.

 

The design was probably based on designs by the two Hamburg architects Bernhard Georg Hanssen and Wilhelm Emil Meerwein , who were also involved in the designs for Hamburg City Hall . The brick facade is kept in historicizing forms and was decorated with glass brick bands and granite structuresfitted. Other features include the green copper roof, tall arched windows and round bay windows. The only tower is a clock turret with decorative bands of green glazed bricks and red granite stones. The flat, water-side extension at the back of the moated castle is not part of the original building, but was built in the post-war period from rubble. Until recently, the building housed offices and storage rooms. Originally, the moated castle was used as accommodation and workshop for the dock workers who carried out maintenance and repairs on the hydraulic storage winches . They were called wind guards or wind guards and had the privilege of being allowed to live in the warehouse district, along with other technical personnel.

 

The winches were an important part of the warehouses: there were - and still are - no freight elevators . All goods were pulled to and from the storage floors of the warehouses with winches on the outside of the facades.

 

The spare parts required for the maintenance work, some of which were heavy, could be transported from here via roads and canals. On the waterway via two cranes on the east side of the building, on land via an old cobbled street that leads directly into the building and ends behind the large double doors of the moated castle.

 

Today the building is used for commercial purposes. On the ground floor there is a commercial space for the tea trade with attached gastronomy. An oxygen therapy provider is located on the first floor . Because of its location and architecture, it has also served as a backdrop for television productions , such as the children's TV series The Peppercorns . [2]

 

The Wasserschlösschen also trades as the "external marriage office" of the Hamburg-Mitte registry office

Family picture.

 

www.sfgenealogy.com/sanmateo/history/ambulance/smambulanc...

 

As remembered by

Michael Ratliff Lutz

 

Introduction:

When I began researching my family’s history in Redwood City, California in the year 2004 I was certain that I would be able to find a lot of information about my uncle, Ralph H. Ratliff since his death in March of 1963 was front-page news in The Redwood City Tribune. To my surprise, he was nearly a forgotten man. The local historical societies only had a couple of old newspaper clippings. I only had the clippings and photos that my mother, Nina Mardel Ratliff (Lutz) (Womer), had saved in her scrapbook over the years to work with. With the help of a few relatives I have been able to reconstruct the story of Ralph Ratliff and his Peninsula Ambulance Service.

 

Ratliff Enterprises as described in a 1961 Redwood City Tribune article:

 

Twelve women in three shifts work around the clock with their fingers virtually on the pulse of a vast segment of professional and business life. These women answer a monthly average of 38,000 telephone calls.

They are employees of Ratliff Enterprises, Inc a family owner corporation occupying its own two-story building at 1260 Marshall Street. Ratliff Enterprises operates the Redwood City Telephone Answering Service, which embraces the Sequoia District Physicians Exchange. It also operates the Peninsula Ambulance Service and the Peninsula Hospital Rental Service. Its ambulances respond to 500 calls monthly. The County of San Mateo subsidizes peninsula Ambulance Service.

 

Its rental service rents out anything needed for the care of patients in the home…such things as oxygen, refrigerated tents, wheel chairs, therapy lamps, traction equipment and beds.

 

The officers of the corporation are Ralph H. Ratliff, president: his wife Irene I. Ratliff: vice president their two sons and a daughter, K. Harold Ratliff and Ralph J. Ratliff, and Mrs. Virginia Collins, directors. Mrs. Ratliff manages the answering service with Mrs. Collins as the assistant manager. Harold is the manager and bookkeeper of the ambulance and rental divisions.

 

Mateo County uses a subsidy system with Peninsula Ambulance Service so they could discontinue their own emergency ambulance service. If the company couldn’t collect from individuals, the county would reimburse them $20 per call for all service ordered through police systems. Most calls came through the Sheriffs Office.

 

In 1960 Peninsula Ambulance received a subsidy of $18,000, a considerable savings compared to what it would have cost to operate their own system. Ambulance employees were taught advanced Red Cross first aide, basic obstetrics and oxygen therapy.

 

As to obstetrics, Ralph Ratliff personally delivered 10 babies while working shifts with his ambulance crews, three of these births occurred in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It just happened that 10 mothers waited until the very last minute. Unlike in the storybooks, none of the babies were named after him.

 

The ambulance fees are $25 per call plus supplies used at the accident scene like splints and oxygen, and $12.50 if a second patient on a stretcher was involved. A third person with minor injuries could ride with the driver for free.

 

I was able to find reports of two of those baby deliveries in the San Mateo Times archives, one in La Honda on July 14, 1949, and another in the back of the ambulance on August 21 1957. It is true that neither baby was named Ralph after my uncle, but then again, they were both girls.

Oops, I nearly missed the boy he delivered on July 2, 1954. He wasn’t named Ralph either.

 

Recent generations probably don’t realize that emergency medical service used to be provided by private ambulance companies. Until the late 1970s when EMTs were stationed in firehouses, private ambulance services like Peninsula Ambulance Service and Harold Ratliff’s California Ambulance Service would respond to medical emergencies. Ambulance personnel received advanced first aide training from the American Red Cross. In fact, Ralph Ratliff was a first aide instructor for the Red Cross for several years. The classes were taught at the Sequoia Chapter of the American Red Cross, 3540 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park. There were six, two-hour sessions taught in the evening, ending in a Red Cross certificate for those who passed the course.

 

I’m probably not the best person to tell the story of Peninsula Ambulance since my contact with this part of my family was rather inconsistent over the years. My mother was half owner of Home Creek Resort at Huntington lake in Fresno County so except for two years in 1951 and 1952 when we wintered over with Ralph Ratliff’s family in Redwood City, my contact was limited to a couple of weeks on vacation every year. In my senior high school year, 1962-63 we moved to Redwood City, but that was just a few months before my uncle died. There was a time when you couldn’t go anywhere in Redwood City without bumping into a member of the Ratliff family, but now it seems I’m the only one left. Fortunately, my mother saved numerous newspaper articles and photographs that should be helpful.

 

Ralph H. Ratliff was born in Tallula, Illinois on November 05, 1903 to George O. and Carrie Ratliff of Jacksonville, Illinois. The family, including his older brother Frank Jerry Ratliff, and younger sister and my mother, Nina Mardel Ratliff later moved to Los Angeles then to San Francisco in the 1920s. My grandfather, George O. Ratliff was in the real estate business but Ralph found working on cars more to his liking, so for several years he worked as an auto mechanic in San Francisco.

 

Prior to leaving Los Angeles, Ralph had a brief marriage to Mildred Hensley, and a son Ralph H. Ratliff Jr., born October 14, 1922. Ralph Jr. moved to San Francisco with the rest of the family and was cared for by my mother and grandmother until Ralph married Irene I. Haseltine of Redwood City in Palo Alto, California on May 8, 1925. Their first son, Kenneth “Harold” Ratliff was born November 04, 1925. They had two additional children, Ralph Junior Ratliff, born January 25, 1927 and Virginia Lois Ratliff, born May 21, 1928.

 

Irene Haseltine was a Redwood City girl, her emigrated to Redwood City from Wisconsin in the early 1900s. Ralph and Irene Ratliff continued to live in San Francisco until 1939 when, with financial assistance from his father George Ratliff, he opened the Peninsula Garage in Redwood City.

 

The first location of the Peninsula Garage was near Bayshore Highway, near Main and Bradford today. This section of Bayshore is now Veteran’s Blvd. The location near the highway made it easier for both the towing business and the ambulance business to respond quickly. When they moved to 432 Middlefield Rd. they were about the same distance from the highway as they were at Main and Bradford. There were no freeways then. The highways all had stoplights at major intersections. Bayshore Highway had only two lanes in each direction with no center divider. There were very few buildings along old Bayshore but there were a lot of billboards

 

Towing was a large part of the Peninsula Garage business. It was the towing business that got Ralph Ratliff started in the ambulance business. Ralph’s tow trucks were arriving at auto accident scenes long before the ambulance arrived. In 1944, Mickey Collins, then chief of police, asked my uncle to provide the community with some kind of ambulance service. Ralph purchased a used ambulance from a taxicab company, took first aide classes, and went into business. It’s not clear why a taxi company had an ambulance.

 

At first the Peninsula Garage and Peninsula Ambulance coexisted at the same address at 450 Main St., Redwood City. They also shared the same phone number for a while which probably caused some confusion, but there is no record of a tow truck responding to an ambulance call.

 

During the early 1940s the Ratliff family lived on Oxford Street in Redwood City. Oxford Street was pretty much out in the country then. There were very few other houses around. Later they moved to a large white house at 432 Middlefield Rd. near the corner of old Bayshore Highway. That location is now a county parking lot. That house also served as the base for the ambulance service.

 

This article about my cousin Harold Ratliff’s wedding reception pretty much sums up the Ratliff family in Redwood City during World War 2. My mother was living with the Ratliff’s on Oxford Street then. My father was away in the army and I was just born a month before or so before the article was written so it was easier for her to live with relatives. I was at this reception but don’t remember much.

 

Ironically, I was born in San Francisco. My family was from San Francisco but by 1944 my grand parents had moved to Burlingame and my mother was living in Redwood City. They all decided to go to a fireworks display at Kezar stadium in 1944, and that’s when and where I was born.

 

Redwood City Tribune, August 1944:

A large wedding party and reception was held in honor of newly wedded Mr. and Mrs. Harold Kenneth Ratliff, the former Miss Virginia Alberta French of San Francisco, at the home of the groom’s grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Alva Haseltine of 479 Sequoia Ave. last week.

Because of Harold’s short leave from the navy, in which he is a seaman second class, the couple was married in Reno on Aug. 23. They met several years ago when Virginia visited her aunt, Mrs. Tom Kelly of Redwood City.

 

For her wedding the bride chose the navy colors of navy blue and white. She wore a navy blue suit with white accessories and a gardenia corsage.

 

Harold is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R.H. Ratliff of 1474 Oxford St. He is the brother of Ralph and Virginia Ratliff who attend Sequoia High School and Ralph Harold Ratliff Jr. who is now in the U.S. Army at Camp Haan. Harold also attended Sequoia High School.

 

At the reception the table was decorated in blue and white centered with a tiered wedding cake topped with a miniature sailor and his bride. Many gifts were received by the newlyweds.

 

Attending the reception were Mr. and Mrs. George Ratliff, grandparents of the groom, Mrs. Nina Mardel Lutz, aunt, and son Michael Lutz; Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Keyser, aunt and uncle, and cousins, Bonnie, Phillip and Jimmie Keyser; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Haseltine, aunt and uncle, and Neal and Dale Haseltine; Mrs. Jasper Haseltine, aunt, and Joanne and Freddie Haseltine, and Sgt. and Mrs. Herbert England, cousins, and daughter, Sharon Lee.

 

Also attending were Sgt. and Mrs. John Whittington, Mr. and Mrs. Tony Alvis and sons, Mr. Norman Peterson and Kenneth Peterson, USN.

 

Unable to attend were Mr. Jasper Haseltine, uncle, who is now overseas with the merchant marine, Sgt. Eddie Thoemke of the U.S. Army, and Mrs. Thoemke, uncle and aunt; and Sgt. Richard Lutz, uncle, who is currently stationed in Roswell, New Mexico.

 

This is my cousin Virginia (Ginny) Ratliff behind their home at 1474 Oxford St in Redwood City about in the late 1940s. That area behind her would be covered with houses by 1950.

Unfortunately, Harold Ratliff’s Marriage to Virginia French only lasted a couple of years. He later married Carol Sufczynski Dierks of Redwood City on March 26,1949.

 

Around 1948 the Ratliff family and the business moved to a new location at 432 Middlefield Road, now a parking lot for the San Mateo County Offices. The garage was sold and they purchased an answering service, Sequoia District Physicians Exchange.

 

Both the businesses and the family occupied the same large house. The answering service occupied what was a large living room. Fortunately the house must have had two living rooms, because there was another room of equal size with a connecting door. The upstairs served as quarters for the ambulance crews.

 

There was enough room in the house to accommodate my mother and me the winters of 1951 and 1952 during the off-season for my mother’s business, Home Creek Resort at Huntington Lake, CA. From November to March we lived in Redwood City. I attended Monroe School, and mom worked shifts at the answering service.

 

On October 08, 1949 my uncle Ralph was nearly killed in a three-car pile up on old Pacheco Pass. He was on his way to Home Creek Resort at Huntington Lake in Fresno County. The resort was co-owned by my mother, and uncle Frank “Jerry” Ratliff. Every fall the family gathered at the resort during deer season. I can remember my uncle in what was nearly a full body cast lying in a hospital bed in the living room of that house on Middlefield.

 

Getting to Monroe School was an easy walk then because Bradford connected Middlefield Rd. and Allerton St. Ralph Junior Ratliff and his family lived at 730 Allerton diagonally across from Monroe School so they were available to point me in the right direction when I got lost my first day. In one of those little coincidences that happen now and then, my cousin’s landlady at 730 Allerton was Mrs. Mary Tesolin, the mother of Carmen Tesolin, my future wife, though I didn’t actually meet her until 1963. In 1955, my cousin Ralph Junior Ratliff and family lived in the old carriage house on property at 726-730 Allerton Street. It sat next to an old farmhouse also owned by Mary “Sironi” Tesolin, Carmen’s mother.

 

Both of Ralph Ratliff’s sons worked shifts for the ambulance service as well as working other jobs, so Ralph Jr. and Harold were always descending the stairs to raid the refrigerator. One of Harold’s sons, Kenny, also lived there. Ralph and Irene Ratliff assumed the responsibility of caring for Kenneth Ratliff after Harold’s divorce from his first wife Virginia. They continued to care for Kenny until he joined the Navy in 1965.

 

Kenny and I slept in the glassed in front porch of the house. I remember it being quite cold, especially since my aunt Irene insisted on an open window, even in mid winter. Something about the health benefits of fresh air. It was also noisy. The police radio was always on in the living room for some reason. I didn’t understand why the radio wasn’t upstairs with the ambulance guys. The house was also very close to Bayshore Highway, and there was a stop light at Middlefield and Bayshore. Trucks that stopped at the light had to rev up their engines to get moving again. On the other side were the trains. The tracks were, a few blocks away, but the trains ran all night. I don’t think I got a lotta sleep.

 

In the late 1950s Harold and Ralph Junior Ratliff purchased the Flying “A” service station at the corner of Middlefield and Bayshore. Ralph Sr. helped with the financing.

 

In 1959 Ralph Junior Ratliff left the business and eventually moved his family to Oregon leaving Harold Ratliff the sole owner of the business.

 

In the late 1950s the County of San Mateo decided it needed the block that housed both Peninsula Ambulance Service and Ratliff’s Flying “A” so the Ambulance Business moved to a new location, and built a new building at 1260 Marshall St., and Harold Ratliff rejoined the Ambulance Company. The building on Marshall is still there and currently occupied by Aloha Flowers (2005).

 

Before the Kaiser Medical Center was completed in 1968 we used to set off 4th of July fireworks in front of the Ambulance Service. Kaiser was virtually built in our front yard. During the 1960s while Kaiser was being built my entire family worked at 1260 Marshall. My uncle ran the businesses, my cousins drove ambulances, and my mother ran the medical supply for a while. My aunt ran Sequoia Physicians & Surgeons Exchange in the same building. I even worked there when I was in high school in 1963.

 

After I was discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1967 I used the skills that I learned as a hospital corpsman to moonlight for various ambulance services while I was attending San Francisco State University. The skills required by civilian ambulance employees were nearly identical to those skills used by a field medic (corpsman) with the U.S. Marines. I worked in the operating room at the old Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. That made it possible for me to moonlight some nights and weekends for Bob’s Ambulance Service in Oakland while still on active duty.

 

Often, history is what is going on in the background of a photograph so the following photographs not only show some vintage Peninsula Ambulances from the 1940s and 50s, but also shows a large facility that belonged to the Mobil Oil Company. The Mobil facility was directly across Middlefield from both Peninsula Ambulance and the Flying “A” station. You can also see a tower appears close but was actually several blocks away at Frank’s Tannery. Just across the Highway from the Flying “A” was the Redwood City Rodeo Grounds. That’s about where the Department of Motor Vehicles is located now.

 

In 1961 Ralph Ratliff was voted president of the California Ambulance Association. On September 6th of that same year the San Mateo Times reported that my uncle and a California Highway Patrol Officer named Fred Hagen climbed down a 400-foot cliff on Tunitas Road to rescue a 16-year-old boy who was thrown from a Jeep when it hit a tree. My uncle was 57 years old at the time and had several younger drivers on his payroll, but he enjoyed the work so much that he was still taking regular turns behind the wheel of the ambulance.

People forget that before Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and specialized rescue vehicles, ambulance services did it all. Peninsula Ambulance Service covered most of San Mateo County, from delivering a baby in La Honda to rescuing a teenager coastside. I remember hearing my uncle’s voice on the ambulance radio informing the hospital that he was coming in from Half Moon Bay with one up and two down. That meant that he had two patients on gurneys and one on a hammock like device used only in extreme emergencies.

 

In most cases there were no freeways, so when an ambulance was coming in from coastside, it was traveling narrow twisting roads often in the fog. Some of those roads are still no fun to drive today.

 

The old Five Points Hotel at 2015 El Camino Real was the location of frequent calls. There was always trouble and ambulance calls to that location were always seen as dangerous. My uncle used to always complain about employees being injured on calls to the hotel. Some of the legendary danger may have been exaggerated, but the Redwood City Police closed down the hotel in the early 1950s.

 

My uncle was credited with saving the life of a man whose throat had been cut in a knife fight in the “five points area” on January 17, 1955. Somehow he managed keep the man from bleeding to death from a severed jugular vein on the way to the hospital, this according to the San Mateo Times.

 

It wasn’t always people who were rescued. When a 16 year old boy hit a dog with his motor scooter in 1957, he not only delivered the boy with a broken leg to the hospital, but he also delivered the dog to a vet.

 

That same year Uncle Ralph had to descend on a sling from a crane into a concrete vat to rescue a worker with a fractured spine. The worker was a welder working on a Bayshore Freeway overpass when he leaned too far into the vat.

 

On May 17, 1962 Ralph Ratliff represented Redwood City at the annual hearing conducted by the California State Chamber of Commerce. The Issues were the completion of the Five Points Overpass, the Junipero Serra Freeway (280), the Skyline Freeway and the Bayfront Freeway (101). There was also resolution offered by the City of Half Moon Bay seeking to continue the so-called San Bruno Freeway (380) to Half Moon Bay.

 

I’m not sure where my uncle stood on the last issue. This was just a couple of years after the City of Pacifica was formed to keep from being annexed by San Bruno, and a couple of years before Pacifica tried to annex all of the communities of the coastside down to Princeton By the Sea. Development was popular then. There was even a plan to make Montara into another Linda Mar.

 

Unfortunately, his election to the new post came shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer. His death in March 1963 was front-page news in the Times Tribune on March 18, 1963:

 

Ralph H. Ratliff, whose Peninsula Ambulance Service has provided Redwood City’s emergency transportation for 19 years died Saturday afternoon after a long battle with cancer. Mr. Ratliff, 59, came here in 1939 to establish a garage and towing service at the corner of Main Street and Old Bayshore.

In 1944, Mickey Collins, then chief of police, told Mr. Ratliff that the community should be provided with some kind of ambulance service. Mr. Ratliff decided to go into the business. He began with one vehicle and today, with headquarters at 1260 Marshall St., has five.

 

A native of Springfield [actually Tallula], Ill., Mr. Ratliff came to Redwood City from San Francisco. He has been identified with many civic activities throughout the years, notably as the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Highway and Traffic Committee. It was for this group that he campaigned for the widening of Jefferson Ave. and Woodside Rd., the extension of Edgewood Rd. to Half Moon Bay, and many of the local provisions of the local in the proposed city-county highway bond issue.

 

Mr. Ratliff also was a member of the Redwood City Exchange club, Redwood City Elks lodge, Modern Woodmen of the World and United Commercial Travelers. He was a charter member and past president of the California Ambulance Association, and was awarded a 20-year pin as a first aide instructor by the Red Cross.

 

Mr. Ratliff’s family will continue to run the ambulance firm.

 

Survivors include his widow, Irene, at the family home, 1007 Katherine St.; Sons Ralph J., Menlo Park and Harold K., Redwood City; a daughter; Mrs. Virginia Collins, Los Altos and a son by a previous marriage, Ralph H. Ratliff Jr. of Los Angeles. A Sister, Mrs. Mardel Womer [My mother’s married name with her second husband] resides in Redwood City. There are 15 grandchildren.

 

Private Funeral Services were held at Lyng & Tinney Funeral Home, 717 Jefferson Ave. Mr. Ratliff willed his body to Stanford Medical School for research.

 

The family prefers contributions to the American Cancer Society, 1517 South B St., San Mateo.

 

And in another article on March 25, 1963:

Ralph H. Ratliff, A Valuable Citizen

It was no longer news to his friends when it appeared in Monday’s paper that Ralph H. Ratliff had succumbed. Mr. Ratliff had been stricken with cancer more than a year ago, and hope for survival disappeared long ago but Mr. Ratliff refused to give up.

He knew that there were many jobs to be done, and he was going to do his best to get some results while he was still able to do so.

 

Mr. Ratliff was one of the developers of an excellent ambulance for Peninsulans. He wasn’t merely satisfied to transport to the hospital; he became an expert in first aide and his careful handling of patients was in many cases the difference between life and death.

 

Mr. Ratliff didn’t confine himself to matter involving his own profession. He was civic minded, and in this too he put in his best effort. Hi thorough study of Redwood City’s street and traffic problems, made at the request of the Chamber of Commerce, has been used as a model by both city and county governments in planning for the future.

 

Much of his best work came after he knew that he would never be able to shake the cancer that was spreading through his body.

 

This effort and enthusiasm ….the will to keep working for the public’s benefit even while knowing that he would reap none of the benefits…made Ralph H. Ratliff one of Redwood City’s most valuable citizens.

 

The entire community shares with his family this deep loss.

 

The family tried to continue the business together, but as often happens in these situations, there was disagreement about how the business should be run, so Harold Ratliff established a competing service, California Ambulance.

 

Harold Ratliff in the California Ambulance Office about 1970

 

California Ambulance Service was moderately successful but the move by San Mateo County to station emergency medical responders to fire stations left only non-emergency transport work to private ambulance companies. Eventually, both Peninsula Ambulance Service and California Ambulance Service merged with Mercy Ambulance Service in Daly City to form Mercy-Peninsula Ambulance.

 

Irene Ratliff retired and moved to Oregon to be close to her children. Harold worked at Raychem in Menlo Park until his death on May 06, 1985. He died of a heart attack behind the wheel of his car on El Camino Real.

 

Times Tribune May 08, 1985

Harold Ratliff, 59, Known as “Ratliff the Magician” to scores of Peninsula children and church groups, and a resident of Redwood City for over 40 years, died Monday in Mills Memorial Hospital after a sudden illness. He was a native of San Francisco.

 

He was a Navy veteran of World War II and served in the Pacific. In recent years he worked for Raychem in Menlo Park.

 

As a magician he performed for churches, children’s parties and many organizations.

 

Survivors include his wife Carol, his wife of 37 years; his sons, Kenneth of San Jose and Donald and Robert of Oregon; daughters Donna Knerr of Texas, Sandra Ebaugh of Mountain View and Barbara Ferriera of Florida; brothers Ralph J. of Oregon and Ralph H. of Los Angeles; a sister, Virginia Collins of Pasadena; his mother, Irene Ratliff of Oregon.

 

Private services have been held with internment in Golden Gate National Cemetery at San Bruno under direction of the Redwood Chapel, Redwood City. The family suggests memorial gifts to the American Heart Association.

 

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As remembered by

Michael Ratliff Lutz

 

Introduction:

When I began researching my family’s history in Redwood City, California in the year 2004 I was certain that I would be able to find a lot of information about my uncle, Ralph H. Ratliff since his death in March of 1963 was front-page news in The Redwood City Tribune. To my surprise, he was nearly a forgotten man. The local historical societies only had a couple of old newspaper clippings. I only had the clippings and photos that my mother, Nina Mardel Ratliff (Lutz) (Womer), had saved in her scrapbook over the years to work with. With the help of a few relatives I have been able to reconstruct the story of Ralph Ratliff and his Peninsula Ambulance Service.

 

Ratliff Enterprises as described in a 1961 Redwood City Tribune article:

 

Twelve women in three shifts work around the clock with their fingers virtually on the pulse of a vast segment of professional and business life. These women answer a monthly average of 38,000 telephone calls.

They are employees of Ratliff Enterprises, Inc a family owner corporation occupying its own two-story building at 1260 Marshall Street. Ratliff Enterprises operates the Redwood City Telephone Answering Service, which embraces the Sequoia District Physicians Exchange. It also operates the Peninsula Ambulance Service and the Peninsula Hospital Rental Service. Its ambulances respond to 500 calls monthly. The County of San Mateo subsidizes peninsula Ambulance Service.

 

Its rental service rents out anything needed for the care of patients in the home…such things as oxygen, refrigerated tents, wheel chairs, therapy lamps, traction equipment and beds.

 

The officers of the corporation are Ralph H. Ratliff, president: his wife Irene I. Ratliff: vice president their two sons and a daughter, K. Harold Ratliff and Ralph J. Ratliff, and Mrs. Virginia Collins, directors. Mrs. Ratliff manages the answering service with Mrs. Collins as the assistant manager. Harold is the manager and bookkeeper of the ambulance and rental divisions.

 

Mateo County uses a subsidy system with Peninsula Ambulance Service so they could discontinue their own emergency ambulance service. If the company couldn’t collect from individuals, the county would reimburse them $20 per call for all service ordered through police systems. Most calls came through the Sheriffs Office.

 

In 1960 Peninsula Ambulance received a subsidy of $18,000, a considerable savings compared to what it would have cost to operate their own system. Ambulance employees were taught advanced Red Cross first aide, basic obstetrics and oxygen therapy.

 

As to obstetrics, Ralph Ratliff personally delivered 10 babies while working shifts with his ambulance crews, three of these births occurred in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It just happened that 10 mothers waited until the very last minute. Unlike in the storybooks, none of the babies were named after him.

 

The ambulance fees are $25 per call plus supplies used at the accident scene like splints and oxygen, and $12.50 if a second patient on a stretcher was involved. A third person with minor injuries could ride with the driver for free.

 

I was able to find reports of two of those baby deliveries in the San Mateo Times archives, one in La Honda on July 14, 1949, and another in the back of the ambulance on August 21 1957. It is true that neither baby was named Ralph after my uncle, but then again, they were both girls.

Oops, I nearly missed the boy he delivered on July 2, 1954. He wasn’t named Ralph either.

 

Recent generations probably don’t realize that emergency medical service used to be provided by private ambulance companies. Until the late 1970s when EMTs were stationed in firehouses, private ambulance services like Peninsula Ambulance Service and Harold Ratliff’s California Ambulance Service would respond to medical emergencies. Ambulance personnel received advanced first aide training from the American Red Cross. In fact, Ralph Ratliff was a first aide instructor for the Red Cross for several years. The classes were taught at the Sequoia Chapter of the American Red Cross, 3540 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park. There were six, two-hour sessions taught in the evening, ending in a Red Cross certificate for those who passed the course.

 

I’m probably not the best person to tell the story of Peninsula Ambulance since my contact with this part of my family was rather inconsistent over the years. My mother was half owner of Home Creek Resort at Huntington lake in Fresno County so except for two years in 1951 and 1952 when we wintered over with Ralph Ratliff’s family in Redwood City, my contact was limited to a couple of weeks on vacation every year. In my senior high school year, 1962-63 we moved to Redwood City, but that was just a few months before my uncle died. There was a time when you couldn’t go anywhere in Redwood City without bumping into a member of the Ratliff family, but now it seems I’m the only one left. Fortunately, my mother saved numerous newspaper articles and photographs that should be helpful.

 

Ralph H. Ratliff was born in Tallula, Illinois on November 05, 1903 to George O. and Carrie Ratliff of Jacksonville, Illinois. The family, including his older brother Frank Jerry Ratliff, and younger sister and my mother, Nina Mardel Ratliff later moved to Los Angeles then to San Francisco in the 1920s. My grandfather, George O. Ratliff was in the real estate business but Ralph found working on cars more to his liking, so for several years he worked as an auto mechanic in San Francisco.

 

Prior to leaving Los Angeles, Ralph had a brief marriage to Mildred Hensley, and a son Ralph H. Ratliff Jr., born October 14, 1922. Ralph Jr. moved to San Francisco with the rest of the family and was cared for by my mother and grandmother until Ralph married Irene I. Haseltine of Redwood City in Palo Alto, California on May 8, 1925. Their first son, Kenneth “Harold” Ratliff was born November 04, 1925. They had two additional children, Ralph Junior Ratliff, born January 25, 1927 and Virginia Lois Ratliff, born May 21, 1928.

 

Irene Haseltine was a Redwood City girl, her emigrated to Redwood City from Wisconsin in the early 1900s. Ralph and Irene Ratliff continued to live in San Francisco until 1939 when, with financial assistance from his father George Ratliff, he opened the Peninsula Garage in Redwood City.

 

The first location of the Peninsula Garage was near Bayshore Highway, near Main and Bradford today. This section of Bayshore is now Veteran’s Blvd. The location near the highway made it easier for both the towing business and the ambulance business to respond quickly. When they moved to 432 Middlefield Rd. they were about the same distance from the highway as they were at Main and Bradford. There were no freeways then. The highways all had stoplights at major intersections. Bayshore Highway had only two lanes in each direction with no center divider. There were very few buildings along old Bayshore but there were a lot of billboards

 

Towing was a large part of the Peninsula Garage business. It was the towing business that got Ralph Ratliff started in the ambulance business. Ralph’s tow trucks were arriving at auto accident scenes long before the ambulance arrived. In 1944, Mickey Collins, then chief of police, asked my uncle to provide the community with some kind of ambulance service. Ralph purchased a used ambulance from a taxicab company, took first aide classes, and went into business. It’s not clear why a taxi company had an ambulance.

 

At first the Peninsula Garage and Peninsula Ambulance coexisted at the same address at 450 Main St., Redwood City. They also shared the same phone number for a while which probably caused some confusion, but there is no record of a tow truck responding to an ambulance call.

 

During the early 1940s the Ratliff family lived on Oxford Street in Redwood City. Oxford Street was pretty much out in the country then. There were very few other houses around. Later they moved to a large white house at 432 Middlefield Rd. near the corner of old Bayshore Highway. That location is now a county parking lot. That house also served as the base for the ambulance service.

 

This article about my cousin Harold Ratliff’s wedding reception pretty much sums up the Ratliff family in Redwood City during World War 2. My mother was living with the Ratliff’s on Oxford Street then. My father was away in the army and I was just born a month before or so before the article was written so it was easier for her to live with relatives. I was at this reception but don’t remember much.

 

Ironically, I was born in San Francisco. My family was from San Francisco but by 1944 my grand parents had moved to Burlingame and my mother was living in Redwood City. They all decided to go to a fireworks display at Kezar stadium in 1944, and that’s when and where I was born.

 

Redwood City Tribune, August 1944:

A large wedding party and reception was held in honor of newly wedded Mr. and Mrs. Harold Kenneth Ratliff, the former Miss Virginia Alberta French of San Francisco, at the home of the groom’s grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Alva Haseltine of 479 Sequoia Ave. last week.

Because of Harold’s short leave from the navy, in which he is a seaman second class, the couple was married in Reno on Aug. 23. They met several years ago when Virginia visited her aunt, Mrs. Tom Kelly of Redwood City.

 

For her wedding the bride chose the navy colors of navy blue and white. She wore a navy blue suit with white accessories and a gardenia corsage.

 

Harold is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R.H. Ratliff of 1474 Oxford St. He is the brother of Ralph and Virginia Ratliff who attend Sequoia High School and Ralph Harold Ratliff Jr. who is now in the U.S. Army at Camp Haan. Harold also attended Sequoia High School.

 

At the reception the table was decorated in blue and white centered with a tiered wedding cake topped with a miniature sailor and his bride. Many gifts were received by the newlyweds.

 

Attending the reception were Mr. and Mrs. George Ratliff, grandparents of the groom, Mrs. Nina Mardel Lutz, aunt, and son Michael Lutz; Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Keyser, aunt and uncle, and cousins, Bonnie, Phillip and Jimmie Keyser; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Haseltine, aunt and uncle, and Neal and Dale Haseltine; Mrs. Jasper Haseltine, aunt, and Joanne and Freddie Haseltine, and Sgt. and Mrs. Herbert England, cousins, and daughter, Sharon Lee.

 

Also attending were Sgt. and Mrs. John Whittington, Mr. and Mrs. Tony Alvis and sons, Mr. Norman Peterson and Kenneth Peterson, USN.

 

Unable to attend were Mr. Jasper Haseltine, uncle, who is now overseas with the merchant marine, Sgt. Eddie Thoemke of the U.S. Army, and Mrs. Thoemke, uncle and aunt; and Sgt. Richard Lutz, uncle, who is currently stationed in Roswell, New Mexico.

 

This is my cousin Virginia (Ginny) Ratliff behind their home at 1474 Oxford St in Redwood City about in the late 1940s. That area behind her would be covered with houses by 1950.

Unfortunately, Harold Ratliff’s Marriage to Virginia French only lasted a couple of years. He later married Carol Sufczynski Dierks of Redwood City on March 26,1949.

 

Around 1948 the Ratliff family and the business moved to a new location at 432 Middlefield Road, now a parking lot for the San Mateo County Offices. The garage was sold and they purchased an answering service, Sequoia District Physicians Exchange.

 

Both the businesses and the family occupied the same large house. The answering service occupied what was a large living room. Fortunately the house must have had two living rooms, because there was another room of equal size with a connecting door. The upstairs served as quarters for the ambulance crews.

 

There was enough room in the house to accommodate my mother and me the winters of 1951 and 1952 during the off-season for my mother’s business, Home Creek Resort at Huntington Lake, CA. From November to March we lived in Redwood City. I attended Monroe School, and mom worked shifts at the answering service.

 

On October 08, 1949 my uncle Ralph was nearly killed in a three-car pile up on old Pacheco Pass. He was on his way to Home Creek Resort at Huntington Lake in Fresno County. The resort was co-owned by my mother, and uncle Frank “Jerry” Ratliff. Every fall the family gathered at the resort during deer season. I can remember my uncle in what was nearly a full body cast lying in a hospital bed in the living room of that house on Middlefield.

 

Getting to Monroe School was an easy walk then because Bradford connected Middlefield Rd. and Allerton St. Ralph Junior Ratliff and his family lived at 730 Allerton diagonally across from Monroe School so they were available to point me in the right direction when I got lost my first day. In one of those little coincidences that happen now and then, my cousin’s landlady at 730 Allerton was Mrs. Mary Tesolin, the mother of Carmen Tesolin, my future wife, though I didn’t actually meet her until 1963. In 1955, my cousin Ralph Junior Ratliff and family lived in the old carriage house on property at 726-730 Allerton Street. It sat next to an old farmhouse also owned by Mary “Sironi” Tesolin, Carmen’s mother.

 

Both of Ralph Ratliff’s sons worked shifts for the ambulance service as well as working other jobs, so Ralph Jr. and Harold were always descending the stairs to raid the refrigerator. One of Harold’s sons, Kenny, also lived there. Ralph and Irene Ratliff assumed the responsibility of caring for Kenneth Ratliff after Harold’s divorce from his first wife Virginia. They continued to care for Kenny until he joined the Navy in 1965.

 

Kenny and I slept in the glassed in front porch of the house. I remember it being quite cold, especially since my aunt Irene insisted on an open window, even in mid winter. Something about the health benefits of fresh air. It was also noisy. The police radio was always on in the living room for some reason. I didn’t understand why the radio wasn’t upstairs with the ambulance guys. The house was also very close to Bayshore Highway, and there was a stop light at Middlefield and Bayshore. Trucks that stopped at the light had to rev up their engines to get moving again. On the other side were the trains. The tracks were, a few blocks away, but the trains ran all night. I don’t think I got a lotta sleep.

 

In the late 1950s Harold and Ralph Junior Ratliff purchased the Flying “A” service station at the corner of Middlefield and Bayshore. Ralph Sr. helped with the financing.

 

In 1959 Ralph Junior Ratliff left the business and eventually moved his family to Oregon leaving Harold Ratliff the sole owner of the business.

 

In the late 1950s the County of San Mateo decided it needed the block that housed both Peninsula Ambulance Service and Ratliff’s Flying “A” so the Ambulance Business moved to a new location, and built a new building at 1260 Marshall St., and Harold Ratliff rejoined the Ambulance Company. The building on Marshall is still there and currently occupied by Aloha Flowers (2005).

 

Before the Kaiser Medical Center was completed in 1968 we used to set off 4th of July fireworks in front of the Ambulance Service. Kaiser was virtually built in our front yard. During the 1960s while Kaiser was being built my entire family worked at 1260 Marshall. My uncle ran the businesses, my cousins drove ambulances, and my mother ran the medical supply for a while. My aunt ran Sequoia Physicians & Surgeons Exchange in the same building. I even worked there when I was in high school in 1963.

 

After I was discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1967 I used the skills that I learned as a hospital corpsman to moonlight for various ambulance services while I was attending San Francisco State University. The skills required by civilian ambulance employees were nearly identical to those skills used by a field medic (corpsman) with the U.S. Marines. I worked in the operating room at the old Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. That made it possible for me to moonlight some nights and weekends for Bob’s Ambulance Service in Oakland while still on active duty.

 

Often, history is what is going on in the background of a photograph so the following photographs not only show some vintage Peninsula Ambulances from the 1940s and 50s, but also shows a large facility that belonged to the Mobil Oil Company. The Mobil facility was directly across Middlefield from both Peninsula Ambulance and the Flying “A” station. You can also see a tower appears close but was actually several blocks away at Frank’s Tannery. Just across the Highway from the Flying “A” was the Redwood City Rodeo Grounds. That’s about where the Department of Motor Vehicles is located now.

 

In 1961 Ralph Ratliff was voted president of the California Ambulance Association. On September 6th of that same year the San Mateo Times reported that my uncle and a California Highway Patrol Officer named Fred Hagen climbed down a 400-foot cliff on Tunitas Road to rescue a 16-year-old boy who was thrown from a Jeep when it hit a tree. My uncle was 57 years old at the time and had several younger drivers on his payroll, but he enjoyed the work so much that he was still taking regular turns behind the wheel of the ambulance.

People forget that before Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and specialized rescue vehicles, ambulance services did it all. Peninsula Ambulance Service covered most of San Mateo County, from delivering a baby in La Honda to rescuing a teenager coastside. I remember hearing my uncle’s voice on the ambulance radio informing the hospital that he was coming in from Half Moon Bay with one up and two down. That meant that he had two patients on gurneys and one on a hammock like device used only in extreme emergencies.

 

In most cases there were no freeways, so when an ambulance was coming in from coastside, it was traveling narrow twisting roads often in the fog. Some of those roads are still no fun to drive today.

 

The old Five Points Hotel at 2015 El Camino Real was the location of frequent calls. There was always trouble and ambulance calls to that location were always seen as dangerous. My uncle used to always complain about employees being injured on calls to the hotel. Some of the legendary danger may have been exaggerated, but the Redwood City Police closed down the hotel in the early 1950s.

 

My uncle was credited with saving the life of a man whose throat had been cut in a knife fight in the “five points area” on January 17, 1955. Somehow he managed keep the man from bleeding to death from a severed jugular vein on the way to the hospital, this according to the San Mateo Times.

 

It wasn’t always people who were rescued. When a 16 year old boy hit a dog with his motor scooter in 1957, he not only delivered the boy with a broken leg to the hospital, but he also delivered the dog to a vet.

 

That same year Uncle Ralph had to descend on a sling from a crane into a concrete vat to rescue a worker with a fractured spine. The worker was a welder working on a Bayshore Freeway overpass when he leaned too far into the vat.

 

On May 17, 1962 Ralph Ratliff represented Redwood City at the annual hearing conducted by the California State Chamber of Commerce. The Issues were the completion of the Five Points Overpass, the Junipero Serra Freeway (280), the Skyline Freeway and the Bayfront Freeway (101). There was also resolution offered by the City of Half Moon Bay seeking to continue the so-called San Bruno Freeway (380) to Half Moon Bay.

 

I’m not sure where my uncle stood on the last issue. This was just a couple of years after the City of Pacifica was formed to keep from being annexed by San Bruno, and a couple of years before Pacifica tried to annex all of the communities of the coastside down to Princeton By the Sea. Development was popular then. There was even a plan to make Montara into another Linda Mar.

 

Unfortunately, his election to the new post came shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer. His death in March 1963 was front-page news in the Times Tribune on March 18, 1963:

 

Ralph H. Ratliff, whose Peninsula Ambulance Service has provided Redwood City’s emergency transportation for 19 years died Saturday afternoon after a long battle with cancer. Mr. Ratliff, 59, came here in 1939 to establish a garage and towing service at the corner of Main Street and Old Bayshore.

In 1944, Mickey Collins, then chief of police, told Mr. Ratliff that the community should be provided with some kind of ambulance service. Mr. Ratliff decided to go into the business. He began with one vehicle and today, with headquarters at 1260 Marshall St., has five.

 

A native of Springfield [actually Tallula], Ill., Mr. Ratliff came to Redwood City from San Francisco. He has been identified with many civic activities throughout the years, notably as the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Highway and Traffic Committee. It was for this group that he campaigned for the widening of Jefferson Ave. and Woodside Rd., the extension of Edgewood Rd. to Half Moon Bay, and many of the local provisions of the local in the proposed city-county highway bond issue.

 

Mr. Ratliff also was a member of the Redwood City Exchange club, Redwood City Elks lodge, Modern Woodmen of the World and United Commercial Travelers. He was a charter member and past president of the California Ambulance Association, and was awarded a 20-year pin as a first aide instructor by the Red Cross.

 

Mr. Ratliff’s family will continue to run the ambulance firm.

 

Survivors include his widow, Irene, at the family home, 1007 Katherine St.; Sons Ralph J., Menlo Park and Harold K., Redwood City; a daughter; Mrs. Virginia Collins, Los Altos and a son by a previous marriage, Ralph H. Ratliff Jr. of Los Angeles. A Sister, Mrs. Mardel Womer [My mother’s married name with her second husband] resides in Redwood City. There are 15 grandchildren.

 

Private Funeral Services were held at Lyng & Tinney Funeral Home, 717 Jefferson Ave. Mr. Ratliff willed his body to Stanford Medical School for research.

 

The family prefers contributions to the American Cancer Society, 1517 South B St., San Mateo.

 

And in another article on March 25, 1963:

Ralph H. Ratliff, A Valuable Citizen

It was no longer news to his friends when it appeared in Monday’s paper that Ralph H. Ratliff had succumbed. Mr. Ratliff had been stricken with cancer more than a year ago, and hope for survival disappeared long ago but Mr. Ratliff refused to give up.

He knew that there were many jobs to be done, and he was going to do his best to get some results while he was still able to do so.

 

Mr. Ratliff was one of the developers of an excellent ambulance for Peninsulans. He wasn’t merely satisfied to transport to the hospital; he became an expert in first aide and his careful handling of patients was in many cases the difference between life and death.

 

Mr. Ratliff didn’t confine himself to matter involving his own profession. He was civic minded, and in this too he put in his best effort. Hi thorough study of Redwood City’s street and traffic problems, made at the request of the Chamber of Commerce, has been used as a model by both city and county governments in planning for the future.

 

Much of his best work came after he knew that he would never be able to shake the cancer that was spreading through his body.

 

This effort and enthusiasm ….the will to keep working for the public’s benefit even while knowing that he would reap none of the benefits…made Ralph H. Ratliff one of Redwood City’s most valuable citizens.

 

The entire community shares with his family this deep loss.

 

The family tried to continue the business together, but as often happens in these situations, there was disagreement about how the business should be run, so Harold Ratliff established a competing service, California Ambulance.

 

Harold Ratliff in the California Ambulance Office about 1970

 

California Ambulance Service was moderately successful but the move by San Mateo County to station emergency medical responders to fire stations left only non-emergency transport work to private ambulance companies. Eventually, both Peninsula Ambulance Service and California Ambulance Service merged with Mercy Ambulance Service in Daly City to form Mercy-Peninsula Ambulance.

 

Irene Ratliff retired and moved to Oregon to be close to her children. Harold worked at Raychem in Menlo Park until his death on May 06, 1985. He died of a heart attack behind the wheel of his car on El Camino Real.

 

Times Tribune May 08, 1985

Harold Ratliff, 59, Known as “Ratliff the Magician” to scores of Peninsula children and church groups, and a resident of Redwood City for over 40 years, died Monday in Mills Memorial Hospital after a sudden illness. He was a native of San Francisco.

 

He was a Navy veteran of World War II and served in the Pacific. In recent years he worked for Raychem in Menlo Park.

 

As a magician he performed for churches, children’s parties and many organizations.

 

Survivors include his wife Carol, his wife of 37 years; his sons, Kenneth of San Jose and Donald and Robert of Oregon; daughters Donna Knerr of Texas, Sandra Ebaugh of Mountain View and Barbara Ferriera of Florida; brothers Ralph J. of Oregon and Ralph H. of Los Angeles; a sister, Virginia Collins of Pasadena; his mother, Irene Ratliff of Oregon.

 

Private services have been held with internment in Golden Gate National Cemetery at San Bruno under direction of the Redwood Chapel, Redwood City. The family suggests memorial gifts to the American Heart Association.

 

© Copyright 1996-2010 SFgenealogy. All rights reserved.

Ratliff Family Christmas Dinner at 432 Middlefield Rd. in 1948.

 

www.sfgenealogy.com/sanmateo/history/ambulance/smambulanc...

 

As remembered by

Michael Ratliff Lutz

 

Introduction:

When I began researching my family’s history in Redwood City, California in the year 2004 I was certain that I would be able to find a lot of information about my uncle, Ralph H. Ratliff since his death in March of 1963 was front-page news in The Redwood City Tribune. To my surprise, he was nearly a forgotten man. The local historical societies only had a couple of old newspaper clippings. I only had the clippings and photos that my mother, Nina Mardel Ratliff (Lutz) (Womer), had saved in her scrapbook over the years to work with. With the help of a few relatives I have been able to reconstruct the story of Ralph Ratliff and his Peninsula Ambulance Service.

 

Ratliff Enterprises as described in a 1961 Redwood City Tribune article:

 

Twelve women in three shifts work around the clock with their fingers virtually on the pulse of a vast segment of professional and business life. These women answer a monthly average of 38,000 telephone calls.

They are employees of Ratliff Enterprises, Inc a family owner corporation occupying its own two-story building at 1260 Marshall Street. Ratliff Enterprises operates the Redwood City Telephone Answering Service, which embraces the Sequoia District Physicians Exchange. It also operates the Peninsula Ambulance Service and the Peninsula Hospital Rental Service. Its ambulances respond to 500 calls monthly. The County of San Mateo subsidizes peninsula Ambulance Service.

 

Its rental service rents out anything needed for the care of patients in the home…such things as oxygen, refrigerated tents, wheel chairs, therapy lamps, traction equipment and beds.

 

The officers of the corporation are Ralph H. Ratliff, president: his wife Irene I. Ratliff: vice president their two sons and a daughter, K. Harold Ratliff and Ralph J. Ratliff, and Mrs. Virginia Collins, directors. Mrs. Ratliff manages the answering service with Mrs. Collins as the assistant manager. Harold is the manager and bookkeeper of the ambulance and rental divisions.

 

Mateo County uses a subsidy system with Peninsula Ambulance Service so they could discontinue their own emergency ambulance service. If the company couldn’t collect from individuals, the county would reimburse them $20 per call for all service ordered through police systems. Most calls came through the Sheriffs Office.

 

In 1960 Peninsula Ambulance received a subsidy of $18,000, a considerable savings compared to what it would have cost to operate their own system. Ambulance employees were taught advanced Red Cross first aide, basic obstetrics and oxygen therapy.

 

As to obstetrics, Ralph Ratliff personally delivered 10 babies while working shifts with his ambulance crews, three of these births occurred in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It just happened that 10 mothers waited until the very last minute. Unlike in the storybooks, none of the babies were named after him.

 

The ambulance fees are $25 per call plus supplies used at the accident scene like splints and oxygen, and $12.50 if a second patient on a stretcher was involved. A third person with minor injuries could ride with the driver for free.

 

I was able to find reports of two of those baby deliveries in the San Mateo Times archives, one in La Honda on July 14, 1949, and another in the back of the ambulance on August 21 1957. It is true that neither baby was named Ralph after my uncle, but then again, they were both girls.

Oops, I nearly missed the boy he delivered on July 2, 1954. He wasn’t named Ralph either.

 

Recent generations probably don’t realize that emergency medical service used to be provided by private ambulance companies. Until the late 1970s when EMTs were stationed in firehouses, private ambulance services like Peninsula Ambulance Service and Harold Ratliff’s California Ambulance Service would respond to medical emergencies. Ambulance personnel received advanced first aide training from the American Red Cross. In fact, Ralph Ratliff was a first aide instructor for the Red Cross for several years. The classes were taught at the Sequoia Chapter of the American Red Cross, 3540 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park. There were six, two-hour sessions taught in the evening, ending in a Red Cross certificate for those who passed the course.

 

I’m probably not the best person to tell the story of Peninsula Ambulance since my contact with this part of my family was rather inconsistent over the years. My mother was half owner of Home Creek Resort at Huntington lake in Fresno County so except for two years in 1951 and 1952 when we wintered over with Ralph Ratliff’s family in Redwood City, my contact was limited to a couple of weeks on vacation every year. In my senior high school year, 1962-63 we moved to Redwood City, but that was just a few months before my uncle died. There was a time when you couldn’t go anywhere in Redwood City without bumping into a member of the Ratliff family, but now it seems I’m the only one left. Fortunately, my mother saved numerous newspaper articles and photographs that should be helpful.

 

Ralph H. Ratliff was born in Tallula, Illinois on November 05, 1903 to George O. and Carrie Ratliff of Jacksonville, Illinois. The family, including his older brother Frank Jerry Ratliff, and younger sister and my mother, Nina Mardel Ratliff later moved to Los Angeles then to San Francisco in the 1920s. My grandfather, George O. Ratliff was in the real estate business but Ralph found working on cars more to his liking, so for several years he worked as an auto mechanic in San Francisco.

 

Prior to leaving Los Angeles, Ralph had a brief marriage to Mildred Hensley, and a son Ralph H. Ratliff Jr., born October 14, 1922. Ralph Jr. moved to San Francisco with the rest of the family and was cared for by my mother and grandmother until Ralph married Irene I. Haseltine of Redwood City in Palo Alto, California on May 8, 1925. Their first son, Kenneth “Harold” Ratliff was born November 04, 1925. They had two additional children, Ralph Junior Ratliff, born January 25, 1927 and Virginia Lois Ratliff, born May 21, 1928.

 

Irene Haseltine was a Redwood City girl, her emigrated to Redwood City from Wisconsin in the early 1900s. Ralph and Irene Ratliff continued to live in San Francisco until 1939 when, with financial assistance from his father George Ratliff, he opened the Peninsula Garage in Redwood City.

 

The first location of the Peninsula Garage was near Bayshore Highway, near Main and Bradford today. This section of Bayshore is now Veteran’s Blvd. The location near the highway made it easier for both the towing business and the ambulance business to respond quickly. When they moved to 432 Middlefield Rd. they were about the same distance from the highway as they were at Main and Bradford. There were no freeways then. The highways all had stoplights at major intersections. Bayshore Highway had only two lanes in each direction with no center divider. There were very few buildings along old Bayshore but there were a lot of billboards

 

Towing was a large part of the Peninsula Garage business. It was the towing business that got Ralph Ratliff started in the ambulance business. Ralph’s tow trucks were arriving at auto accident scenes long before the ambulance arrived. In 1944, Mickey Collins, then chief of police, asked my uncle to provide the community with some kind of ambulance service. Ralph purchased a used ambulance from a taxicab company, took first aide classes, and went into business. It’s not clear why a taxi company had an ambulance.

 

At first the Peninsula Garage and Peninsula Ambulance coexisted at the same address at 450 Main St., Redwood City. They also shared the same phone number for a while which probably caused some confusion, but there is no record of a tow truck responding to an ambulance call.

 

During the early 1940s the Ratliff family lived on Oxford Street in Redwood City. Oxford Street was pretty much out in the country then. There were very few other houses around. Later they moved to a large white house at 432 Middlefield Rd. near the corner of old Bayshore Highway. That location is now a county parking lot. That house also served as the base for the ambulance service.

 

This article about my cousin Harold Ratliff’s wedding reception pretty much sums up the Ratliff family in Redwood City during World War 2. My mother was living with the Ratliff’s on Oxford Street then. My father was away in the army and I was just born a month before or so before the article was written so it was easier for her to live with relatives. I was at this reception but don’t remember much.

 

Ironically, I was born in San Francisco. My family was from San Francisco but by 1944 my grand parents had moved to Burlingame and my mother was living in Redwood City. They all decided to go to a fireworks display at Kezar stadium in 1944, and that’s when and where I was born.

 

Redwood City Tribune, August 1944:

A large wedding party and reception was held in honor of newly wedded Mr. and Mrs. Harold Kenneth Ratliff, the former Miss Virginia Alberta French of San Francisco, at the home of the groom’s grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Alva Haseltine of 479 Sequoia Ave. last week.

Because of Harold’s short leave from the navy, in which he is a seaman second class, the couple was married in Reno on Aug. 23. They met several years ago when Virginia visited her aunt, Mrs. Tom Kelly of Redwood City.

 

For her wedding the bride chose the navy colors of navy blue and white. She wore a navy blue suit with white accessories and a gardenia corsage.

 

Harold is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R.H. Ratliff of 1474 Oxford St. He is the brother of Ralph and Virginia Ratliff who attend Sequoia High School and Ralph Harold Ratliff Jr. who is now in the U.S. Army at Camp Haan. Harold also attended Sequoia High School.

 

At the reception the table was decorated in blue and white centered with a tiered wedding cake topped with a miniature sailor and his bride. Many gifts were received by the newlyweds.

 

Attending the reception were Mr. and Mrs. George Ratliff, grandparents of the groom, Mrs. Nina Mardel Lutz, aunt, and son Michael Lutz; Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Keyser, aunt and uncle, and cousins, Bonnie, Phillip and Jimmie Keyser; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Haseltine, aunt and uncle, and Neal and Dale Haseltine; Mrs. Jasper Haseltine, aunt, and Joanne and Freddie Haseltine, and Sgt. and Mrs. Herbert England, cousins, and daughter, Sharon Lee.

 

Also attending were Sgt. and Mrs. John Whittington, Mr. and Mrs. Tony Alvis and sons, Mr. Norman Peterson and Kenneth Peterson, USN.

 

Unable to attend were Mr. Jasper Haseltine, uncle, who is now overseas with the merchant marine, Sgt. Eddie Thoemke of the U.S. Army, and Mrs. Thoemke, uncle and aunt; and Sgt. Richard Lutz, uncle, who is currently stationed in Roswell, New Mexico.

 

This is my cousin Virginia (Ginny) Ratliff behind their home at 1474 Oxford St in Redwood City about in the late 1940s. That area behind her would be covered with houses by 1950.

Unfortunately, Harold Ratliff’s Marriage to Virginia French only lasted a couple of years. He later married Carol Sufczynski Dierks of Redwood City on March 26,1949.

 

Around 1948 the Ratliff family and the business moved to a new location at 432 Middlefield Road, now a parking lot for the San Mateo County Offices. The garage was sold and they purchased an answering service, Sequoia District Physicians Exchange.

 

Both the businesses and the family occupied the same large house. The answering service occupied what was a large living room. Fortunately the house must have had two living rooms, because there was another room of equal size with a connecting door. The upstairs served as quarters for the ambulance crews.

 

There was enough room in the house to accommodate my mother and me the winters of 1951 and 1952 during the off-season for my mother’s business, Home Creek Resort at Huntington Lake, CA. From November to March we lived in Redwood City. I attended Monroe School, and mom worked shifts at the answering service.

 

On October 08, 1949 my uncle Ralph was nearly killed in a three-car pile up on old Pacheco Pass. He was on his way to Home Creek Resort at Huntington Lake in Fresno County. The resort was co-owned by my mother, and uncle Frank “Jerry” Ratliff. Every fall the family gathered at the resort during deer season. I can remember my uncle in what was nearly a full body cast lying in a hospital bed in the living room of that house on Middlefield.

 

Getting to Monroe School was an easy walk then because Bradford connected Middlefield Rd. and Allerton St. Ralph Junior Ratliff and his family lived at 730 Allerton diagonally across from Monroe School so they were available to point me in the right direction when I got lost my first day. In one of those little coincidences that happen now and then, my cousin’s landlady at 730 Allerton was Mrs. Mary Tesolin, the mother of Carmen Tesolin, my future wife, though I didn’t actually meet her until 1963. In 1955, my cousin Ralph Junior Ratliff and family lived in the old carriage house on property at 726-730 Allerton Street. It sat next to an old farmhouse also owned by Mary “Sironi” Tesolin, Carmen’s mother.

 

Both of Ralph Ratliff’s sons worked shifts for the ambulance service as well as working other jobs, so Ralph Jr. and Harold were always descending the stairs to raid the refrigerator. One of Harold’s sons, Kenny, also lived there. Ralph and Irene Ratliff assumed the responsibility of caring for Kenneth Ratliff after Harold’s divorce from his first wife Virginia. They continued to care for Kenny until he joined the Navy in 1965.

 

Kenny and I slept in the glassed in front porch of the house. I remember it being quite cold, especially since my aunt Irene insisted on an open window, even in mid winter. Something about the health benefits of fresh air. It was also noisy. The police radio was always on in the living room for some reason. I didn’t understand why the radio wasn’t upstairs with the ambulance guys. The house was also very close to Bayshore Highway, and there was a stop light at Middlefield and Bayshore. Trucks that stopped at the light had to rev up their engines to get moving again. On the other side were the trains. The tracks were, a few blocks away, but the trains ran all night. I don’t think I got a lotta sleep.

 

In the late 1950s Harold and Ralph Junior Ratliff purchased the Flying “A” service station at the corner of Middlefield and Bayshore. Ralph Sr. helped with the financing.

 

In 1959 Ralph Junior Ratliff left the business and eventually moved his family to Oregon leaving Harold Ratliff the sole owner of the business.

 

In the late 1950s the County of San Mateo decided it needed the block that housed both Peninsula Ambulance Service and Ratliff’s Flying “A” so the Ambulance Business moved to a new location, and built a new building at 1260 Marshall St., and Harold Ratliff rejoined the Ambulance Company. The building on Marshall is still there and currently occupied by Aloha Flowers (2005).

 

Before the Kaiser Medical Center was completed in 1968 we used to set off 4th of July fireworks in front of the Ambulance Service. Kaiser was virtually built in our front yard. During the 1960s while Kaiser was being built my entire family worked at 1260 Marshall. My uncle ran the businesses, my cousins drove ambulances, and my mother ran the medical supply for a while. My aunt ran Sequoia Physicians & Surgeons Exchange in the same building. I even worked there when I was in high school in 1963.

 

After I was discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1967 I used the skills that I learned as a hospital corpsman to moonlight for various ambulance services while I was attending San Francisco State University. The skills required by civilian ambulance employees were nearly identical to those skills used by a field medic (corpsman) with the U.S. Marines. I worked in the operating room at the old Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. That made it possible for me to moonlight some nights and weekends for Bob’s Ambulance Service in Oakland while still on active duty.

 

Often, history is what is going on in the background of a photograph so the following photographs not only show some vintage Peninsula Ambulances from the 1940s and 50s, but also shows a large facility that belonged to the Mobil Oil Company. The Mobil facility was directly across Middlefield from both Peninsula Ambulance and the Flying “A” station. You can also see a tower appears close but was actually several blocks away at Frank’s Tannery. Just across the Highway from the Flying “A” was the Redwood City Rodeo Grounds. That’s about where the Department of Motor Vehicles is located now.

 

In 1961 Ralph Ratliff was voted president of the California Ambulance Association. On September 6th of that same year the San Mateo Times reported that my uncle and a California Highway Patrol Officer named Fred Hagen climbed down a 400-foot cliff on Tunitas Road to rescue a 16-year-old boy who was thrown from a Jeep when it hit a tree. My uncle was 57 years old at the time and had several younger drivers on his payroll, but he enjoyed the work so much that he was still taking regular turns behind the wheel of the ambulance.

People forget that before Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and specialized rescue vehicles, ambulance services did it all. Peninsula Ambulance Service covered most of San Mateo County, from delivering a baby in La Honda to rescuing a teenager coastside. I remember hearing my uncle’s voice on the ambulance radio informing the hospital that he was coming in from Half Moon Bay with one up and two down. That meant that he had two patients on gurneys and one on a hammock like device used only in extreme emergencies.

 

In most cases there were no freeways, so when an ambulance was coming in from coastside, it was traveling narrow twisting roads often in the fog. Some of those roads are still no fun to drive today.

 

The old Five Points Hotel at 2015 El Camino Real was the location of frequent calls. There was always trouble and ambulance calls to that location were always seen as dangerous. My uncle used to always complain about employees being injured on calls to the hotel. Some of the legendary danger may have been exaggerated, but the Redwood City Police closed down the hotel in the early 1950s.

 

My uncle was credited with saving the life of a man whose throat had been cut in a knife fight in the “five points area” on January 17, 1955. Somehow he managed keep the man from bleeding to death from a severed jugular vein on the way to the hospital, this according to the San Mateo Times.

 

It wasn’t always people who were rescued. When a 16 year old boy hit a dog with his motor scooter in 1957, he not only delivered the boy with a broken leg to the hospital, but he also delivered the dog to a vet.

 

That same year Uncle Ralph had to descend on a sling from a crane into a concrete vat to rescue a worker with a fractured spine. The worker was a welder working on a Bayshore Freeway overpass when he leaned too far into the vat.

 

On May 17, 1962 Ralph Ratliff represented Redwood City at the annual hearing conducted by the California State Chamber of Commerce. The Issues were the completion of the Five Points Overpass, the Junipero Serra Freeway (280), the Skyline Freeway and the Bayfront Freeway (101). There was also resolution offered by the City of Half Moon Bay seeking to continue the so-called San Bruno Freeway (380) to Half Moon Bay.

 

I’m not sure where my uncle stood on the last issue. This was just a couple of years after the City of Pacifica was formed to keep from being annexed by San Bruno, and a couple of years before Pacifica tried to annex all of the communities of the coastside down to Princeton By the Sea. Development was popular then. There was even a plan to make Montara into another Linda Mar.

 

Unfortunately, his election to the new post came shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer. His death in March 1963 was front-page news in the Times Tribune on March 18, 1963:

 

Ralph H. Ratliff, whose Peninsula Ambulance Service has provided Redwood City’s emergency transportation for 19 years died Saturday afternoon after a long battle with cancer. Mr. Ratliff, 59, came here in 1939 to establish a garage and towing service at the corner of Main Street and Old Bayshore.

In 1944, Mickey Collins, then chief of police, told Mr. Ratliff that the community should be provided with some kind of ambulance service. Mr. Ratliff decided to go into the business. He began with one vehicle and today, with headquarters at 1260 Marshall St., has five.

 

A native of Springfield [actually Tallula], Ill., Mr. Ratliff came to Redwood City from San Francisco. He has been identified with many civic activities throughout the years, notably as the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Highway and Traffic Committee. It was for this group that he campaigned for the widening of Jefferson Ave. and Woodside Rd., the extension of Edgewood Rd. to Half Moon Bay, and many of the local provisions of the local in the proposed city-county highway bond issue.

 

Mr. Ratliff also was a member of the Redwood City Exchange club, Redwood City Elks lodge, Modern Woodmen of the World and United Commercial Travelers. He was a charter member and past president of the California Ambulance Association, and was awarded a 20-year pin as a first aide instructor by the Red Cross.

 

Mr. Ratliff’s family will continue to run the ambulance firm.

 

Survivors include his widow, Irene, at the family home, 1007 Katherine St.; Sons Ralph J., Menlo Park and Harold K., Redwood City; a daughter; Mrs. Virginia Collins, Los Altos and a son by a previous marriage, Ralph H. Ratliff Jr. of Los Angeles. A Sister, Mrs. Mardel Womer [My mother’s married name with her second husband] resides in Redwood City. There are 15 grandchildren.

 

Private Funeral Services were held at Lyng & Tinney Funeral Home, 717 Jefferson Ave. Mr. Ratliff willed his body to Stanford Medical School for research.

 

The family prefers contributions to the American Cancer Society, 1517 South B St., San Mateo.

 

And in another article on March 25, 1963:

Ralph H. Ratliff, A Valuable Citizen

It was no longer news to his friends when it appeared in Monday’s paper that Ralph H. Ratliff had succumbed. Mr. Ratliff had been stricken with cancer more than a year ago, and hope for survival disappeared long ago but Mr. Ratliff refused to give up.

He knew that there were many jobs to be done, and he was going to do his best to get some results while he was still able to do so.

 

Mr. Ratliff was one of the developers of an excellent ambulance for Peninsulans. He wasn’t merely satisfied to transport to the hospital; he became an expert in first aide and his careful handling of patients was in many cases the difference between life and death.

 

Mr. Ratliff didn’t confine himself to matter involving his own profession. He was civic minded, and in this too he put in his best effort. Hi thorough study of Redwood City’s street and traffic problems, made at the request of the Chamber of Commerce, has been used as a model by both city and county governments in planning for the future.

 

Much of his best work came after he knew that he would never be able to shake the cancer that was spreading through his body.

 

This effort and enthusiasm ….the will to keep working for the public’s benefit even while knowing that he would reap none of the benefits…made Ralph H. Ratliff one of Redwood City’s most valuable citizens.

 

The entire community shares with his family this deep loss.

 

The family tried to continue the business together, but as often happens in these situations, there was disagreement about how the business should be run, so Harold Ratliff established a competing service, California Ambulance.

 

Harold Ratliff in the California Ambulance Office about 1970

 

California Ambulance Service was moderately successful but the move by San Mateo County to station emergency medical responders to fire stations left only non-emergency transport work to private ambulance companies. Eventually, both Peninsula Ambulance Service and California Ambulance Service merged with Mercy Ambulance Service in Daly City to form Mercy-Peninsula Ambulance.

 

Irene Ratliff retired and moved to Oregon to be close to her children. Harold worked at Raychem in Menlo Park until his death on May 06, 1985. He died of a heart attack behind the wheel of his car on El Camino Real.

 

Times Tribune May 08, 1985

Harold Ratliff, 59, Known as “Ratliff the Magician” to scores of Peninsula children and church groups, and a resident of Redwood City for over 40 years, died Monday in Mills Memorial Hospital after a sudden illness. He was a native of San Francisco.

 

He was a Navy veteran of World War II and served in the Pacific. In recent years he worked for Raychem in Menlo Park.

 

As a magician he performed for churches, children’s parties and many organizations.

 

Survivors include his wife Carol, his wife of 37 years; his sons, Kenneth of San Jose and Donald and Robert of Oregon; daughters Donna Knerr of Texas, Sandra Ebaugh of Mountain View and Barbara Ferriera of Florida; brothers Ralph J. of Oregon and Ralph H. of Los Angeles; a sister, Virginia Collins of Pasadena; his mother, Irene Ratliff of Oregon.

 

Private services have been held with internment in Golden Gate National Cemetery at San Bruno under direction of the Redwood Chapel, Redwood City. The family suggests memorial gifts to the American Heart Association.

 

© Copyright 1996-2010 SFgenealogy. All rights reserved.

I took these photos inside the infectious ward of the Karol Jonschers Children's Hospital, Poznań. It was a time when epidemic armageddon caused by RSV and the next wave of covid was going through pediatric wards. All isolation rooms were then occupied by infected children under the care of a parent. In the corridor there are rows of cardboard boxes with overalls, spare beds. Some kids were treated with oxygen. Less than 2-year-old kid subjected to high-flow oxygen therapy. Only there were fewer ventilators here than in adults. But they also happened.

 

The photos would not have been made without help and kindness from the crew of Department VIII. Special thanks are due to prof. dr hab. n. med. Magdalena Figlerowicz and Karolina Samarzewska, MA, who agreed to the presence of a annoying man with a camera in their clinic.

 

Autmn/winter 22/23. Poznań, PL.

679-03678698.© Masterfile Royalty-Free.Model Release: Yes.Property Release: No.Oxygen therapy..

Erectile dysfunction (ED), also referred to as impotence, is a form of sexual dysfunction in males characterized by the persistent or recurring inability to achieve or maintain a penile erection with sufficient rigidity and duration for satisfactory sexual activity. It is the most common sexual problem in males and can cause psychological distress due to its impact on self-image and sexual relationships. The term erectile dysfunction does not encompass other erection-related disorders, such as priapism.

 

The majority of ED cases are attributed to physical risk factors and predictive factors. These factors can be categorized as vascular, neurological, local penile, hormonal, and drug-induced. Notable predictors of ED include aging, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, obesity, abnormal lipid levels in the blood, hypogonadism, smoking, depression, and medication use. Approximately 10% of cases are linked to psychosocial factors, encompassing conditions such as depression, stress, and problems within relationships.[14] ED is reported in 18% of males aged 50 to 59 years, and 37% in males aged 70 to 75.[14]

 

Treatment of ED encompasses addressing the underlying causes, lifestyle modification, and addressing psychosocial issues.[4] In many instances, medication-based therapies are used, specifically PDE5 inhibitors such as sildenafil.[13] These drugs function by dilating blood vessels, facilitating increased blood flow into the spongy tissue of the penis, analogous to opening a valve wider to enhance water flow in a fire hose. Less frequently employed treatments encompass prostaglandin pellets inserted into the urethra, the injection of smooth-muscle relaxants and vasodilators directly into the penis, penile implants, the use of penis pumps, and vascular surgery.[4][15]

 

Signs and symptoms

ED is characterized by the persistent or recurring inability to achieve or maintain an erection of the penis with sufficient rigidity and duration for satisfactory sexual activity.[14] It is defined as the "persistent or recurrent inability to achieve and maintain a penile erection of sufficient rigidity to permit satisfactory sexual activity for at least 3 months."[4]

 

Psychological impact

ED often has an impact on the emotional well-being of both males and their partners.[14] Many males do not seek treatment due to feelings of embarrassment. About 75% of diagnosed cases of ED go untreated.[16]

 

Causes

Causes of or contributors to ED include the following:

 

Diets high in saturated fat are linked to heart diseases, and males with heart diseases are more likely to experience ED.[7][8] By contrast, plant-based diets show a lower risk for ED.[17][18][19]

Prescription drugs (e.g., SSRIs,[20] beta blockers, antihistamines,[21][22][23] alpha-2 adrenergic receptor agonists, thiazides, hormone modulators, and 5α-reductase inhibitors)[3][4]

Neurogenic disorders (e.g., diabetic neuropathy, temporal lobe epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy)[3][4][5]

Cavernosal disorders (e.g., Peyronie's disease)[3][24]

Hyperprolactinemia (e.g., due to a prolactinoma)[3]

Psychological causes: performance anxiety, stress, and mental disorders[6]

Surgery (e.g., radical prostatectomy)[25]

Ageing: after age 40 years, ageing itself is a risk factor for ED, although numerous other pathologies that may occur with ageing, such as testosterone deficiency, cardiovascular diseases, or diabetes, among others, appear to have interacting effects[1][26]

Kidney disease: ED and chronic kidney disease have pathological mechanisms in common, including vascular and hormonal dysfunction, and may share other comorbidities, such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus that can contribute to ED[9]

Lifestyle habits, particularly smoking, which is a key risk factor for ED as it promotes arterial narrowing.[27][28][29] Due to its propensity for causing detumescence and erectile dysfunction, some studies have described tobacco as an anaphrodisiacal substance.[30]

COVID-19: preliminary research indicates that COVID-19 viral infection may affect sexual and reproductive health.[31][32]

Surgical intervention for a number of conditions may remove anatomical structures necessary to erection, damage nerves, or impair blood supply.[25] ED is a common complication of treatments for prostate cancer, including prostatectomy and destruction of the prostate by external beam radiation, although the prostate gland itself is not necessary to achieve an erection. As far as inguinal hernia surgery is concerned, in most cases, and in the absence of postoperative complications, the operative repair can lead to a recovery of the sexual life of people with preoperative sexual dysfunction, while, in most cases, it does not affect people with a preoperative normal sexual life.[33]

 

ED can also be associated with bicycling due to both neurological and vascular problems due to compression.[34] The increased risk appears to be about 1.7-fold.[35]

 

Concerns that use of pornography can cause ED[36] have little support[37][38] in epidemiological studies, according to a 2015 literature review.[39] According to Gunter de Win, a Belgian professor and sex researcher, "Put simply, respondents who watch 60 minutes a week and think they're addicted were more likely to report sexual dysfunction than those who watch a care-free 160 minutes weekly."[40][41]

 

In seemingly rare cases, medications such as SSRIs, isotretinoin (Accutane) and finasteride (Propecia) are reported to induce long-lasting iatrogenic disorders characterized by sexual dysfunction symptoms, including erectile dysfunction in males; these disorders are known as post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD), post-retinoid sexual dysfunction/post-Accutane syndrome (PRSD/PAS), and post-finasteride syndrome (PFS). These conditions remain poorly understood and lack effective treatments, although they have been suggested to share a common etiology.[42]

 

Rarely impotence can be caused by aromatase being active. See Androgen replacement therapy.

Pathophysiology

Penile erection is managed by two mechanisms: the reflex erection, which is achieved by directly touching the penile shaft, and the psychogenic erection, which is achieved by erotic or emotional stimuli. The former involves the peripheral nerves and the lower parts of the spinal cord, whereas the latter involves the limbic system of the brain. In both cases, an intact neural system is required for a successful and complete erection. Stimulation of the penile shaft by the nervous system leads to the secretion of nitric oxide (NO), which causes the relaxation of the smooth muscles of the corpora cavernosa (the main erectile tissue of the penis), and subsequently penile erection. Additionally, adequate levels of testosterone (produced by the testes) and an intact pituitary gland are required for the development of a healthy erectile system. As can be understood from the mechanisms of a normal erection, impotence may develop due to hormonal deficiency, disorders of the neural system, lack of adequate penile blood supply or psychological problems.[2]

 

Diagnosis

In many cases, the diagnosis can be made based on the person's history of symptoms. In other cases, a physical examination and laboratory investigations are done to rule out more serious causes such as hypogonadism or prolactinoma.[4]

 

One of the first steps is to distinguish between physiological and psychological ED. Determining whether involuntary erections are present is important in eliminating the possibility of psychogenic causes for ED.[4] Obtaining full erections occasionally, such as nocturnal penile tumescence when asleep (that is, when the mind and psychological issues, if any, are less present), tends to suggest that the physical structures are functionally working.[43][44] Similarly, performance with manual stimulation, as well as any performance anxiety or acute situational ED, may indicate a psychogenic component to ED.[4]

 

Another factor leading to ED is diabetes mellitus, a well known cause of neuropathy.[4] ED is also related to generally poor physical health, poor dietary habits, obesity, and most specifically cardiovascular disease, such as coronary artery disease and peripheral vascular disease.[4] Screening for cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and alcoholism, is helpful.[4]

 

In some cases, the simple search for a previously undetected groin hernia can prove useful since it can affect sexual functions in males and is relatively easily curable.[33]

 

The current – as of April 2025[45] – edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) lists Erectile Disorder (ICD-10-CM code: F52.21) as a diagnosis.[46] According to the DSM, it "is the more specific DSM-5 diagnostic category in which erectile dysfunction persists for at least 6 months and causes distress in the individual."[46] The ICD-10, to which the DSM refers regarding Erectile dysfunction,[46] lists it under Failure of genital response (F52.2).[47] The latest edition of the ICD – namely, the ICD-11 – lists the condition as Male erectile dysfunction (HA01.1).

 

Ultrasonography

 

Transverse ultrasound image, ventral view of the penis. Image obtained after induction of an erection, 15 min after injection of prostaglandin E1, showing dilated sinusoids (arrows).[48]

Penile ultrasonography with doppler can be used to examine the erect penis. Most cases of ED of organic causes are related to changes in blood flow in the corpora cavernosa, represented by occlusive artery disease (in which less blood is allowed to enter the penis), most often of atherosclerotic origin, or due to failure of the veno-occlusive mechanism (in which too much blood circulates back out of the penis). Before the Doppler sonogram, the penis should be examined in B mode, in order to identify possible tumors, fibrotic plaques, calcifications, or hematomas, and to evaluate the appearance of the cavernous arteries, which can be tortuous or atheromatous.[48]

 

Erection can be induced by injecting 10–20 μg of prostaglandin E1, with evaluations of the arterial flow every five minutes for 25–30 min (see image). The use of prostaglandin E1 is contraindicated in patients with predisposition to priapism (e.g., those with sickle cell anemia), anatomical deformity of the penis, or penile implants. Phentolamine (2 mg) is often added. Visual and tactile stimulation produces better results. Some authors recommend the use of sildenafil by mouth to replace the injectable drugs in cases of contraindications, although the efficacy of such medication is controversial.[48]

 

Before the injection of the chosen drug, the flow pattern is monophasic, with low systolic velocities and an absence of diastolic flow. After injection, systolic and diastolic peak velocities should increase, decreasing progressively with vein occlusion and becoming negative when the penis becomes rigid (see image below). The reference values vary across studies, ranging from > 25 cm/s to > 35 cm/s. Values above 35 cm/s indicate the absence of arterial disease, values below 25 cm/s indicate arterial insufficiency, and values of 25–35 cm/s are indeterminate because they are less specific (see image below). The data obtained should be correlated with the degree of erection observed. If the peak systolic velocities are normal, the final diastolic velocities should be evaluated, those above 5 cm/s being associated with venogenic ED.[48]

 

Graphs representing the color Doppler spectrum of the flow pattern of the cavernous arteries during the erection phases. A: Single-phase flow with minimal or absent diastole when the penis is flaccid. B: Increased systolic flow and reverse diastole 25 min after injection of prostaglandin.[48]

Graphs representing the color Doppler spectrum of the flow pattern of the cavernous arteries during the erection phases. A: Single-phase flow with minimal or absent diastole when the penis is flaccid. B: Increased systolic flow and reverse diastole 25 min after injection of prostaglandin.[48]

 

Longitudinal, ventral ultrasound of the penis, with pulsed mode and color Doppler. Flow of the cavernous arteries at 5, 15, and 25 min after prostaglandin injection (A, B, and C, respectively). The cavernous artery flow remains below the expected levels (at least 25–35 cm/s), which indicates ED due to arterial insufficiency.[48]

Longitudinal, ventral ultrasound of the penis, with pulsed mode and color Doppler. Flow of the cavernous arteries at 5, 15, and 25 min after prostaglandin injection (A, B, and C, respectively). The cavernous artery flow remains below the expected levels (at least 25–35 cm/s), which indicates ED due to arterial insufficiency.[48]

Other workup methods

Penile nerves function

Tests such as the bulbocavernosus reflex test are used to ascertain whether there is enough nerve sensation in the penis. The physician squeezes the glans (head) of the penis, which immediately causes the anus to contract if nerve function is normal. A physician measures the latency between squeeze and contraction by observing the anal sphincter or by feeling it with a gloved finger in the anus.[49]

Nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT)

It is normal for a man to have five to six erections during sleep, especially during rapid eye movement (REM). Their absence may indicate a problem with nerve function or blood supply in the penis. There are two methods for measuring changes in penile rigidity and circumference during nocturnal erection: snap gauge and strain gauge. A significant proportion[quantify] of males who have no sexual dysfunction nonetheless do not have regular nocturnal erections.[citation needed]

Penile biothesiometry

This test uses electromagnetic vibration to evaluate sensitivity and nerve function in the glans and shaft of the penis.[50]

Dynamic infusion cavernosometry (DICC)

Technique in which fluid is pumped into the penis at a known rate and pressure. It gives a measurement of the vascular pressure in the corpus cavernosum during an erection.[citation needed]

Corpus cavernosometry

Cavernosography measurement of the vascular pressure in the corpus cavernosum. Saline is infused under pressure into the corpus cavernosum with a butterfly needle, and the flow rate needed to maintain an erection indicates the degree of venous leakage. The leaking veins responsible may be visualized by infusing a mixture of saline and x-ray contrast medium and performing a cavernosogram.[51] In Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA), the images are acquired digitally.[citation needed]

Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA)

This is similar to magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetic resonance angiography uses magnetic fields and radio waves to provide detailed images of the blood vessels. The doctor may inject into the patient's bloodstream a contrast agent, which causes vascular tissues to stand out against other tissues, so that information about blood supply and vascular anomalies is easier to gather.[citation needed]

Erection Hardness Score

This section is an excerpt from Erection Hardness Score.[edit]

The Erection Hardness Score (EHS) is a single-item Likert scale used to assess the subjective hardness of the penis as reported by the patient. It ranges from 0 (indicating the penis does not enlarge) to 4 (indicating the penis is completely hard and fully rigid). Developed in 1998, the EHS is widely used in clinical trials and is recognized for its ease of administration and strong association with sexual function outcomes. It has been validated across various causes of erectile dysfunction and in patients treated with phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE5), showing robust psychometric properties and responsiveness to treatment.[52]

Treatment

 

One ad from 1897 claims to restore "perfect manhood. Failure is impossible with our method".[53] Another "will quickly cure you of all nervous or diseases of the generative organs, such as Lost Manhood, Insomnia, Pains in the Back, Seminal Emissions, Nervous Debility, Pimples, Unfitness to Marry, Exhausting Drains, Varicocele and Constipation".[53] The U.S. Federal Trade Commission warns that "phony cures" exist even today.[54]

Treatment depends on the underlying cause. In general, exercise, particularly of the aerobic type, is effective for preventing ED during midlife.[10] Counseling can be used if the underlying cause is psychological, including how to lower stress or anxiety related to sex.[12] Medications by mouth and vacuum erection devices are first-line treatments,[10]: 20, 24  followed by injections of drugs into the penis, as well as penile implants.[10]: 25–26  Vascular reconstructive surgeries are beneficial in certain groups.[55] Treatments, other than surgery, do not fix the underlying physiological problem, but are used as needed before sex.[56]

 

Medications

See also: List of investigational sexual dysfunction drugs

The PDE5 inhibitors sildenafil (Viagra), vardenafil (Levitra) and tadalafil (Cialis) are prescription drugs which are taken by mouth.[10]: 20–21  As of 2018, sildenafil is available in the UK without a prescription.[57] Additionally, a cream combining alprostadil with the permeation enhancer DDAIP has been approved in Canada as a first line treatment for ED.[58] Penile injections, on the other hand, can involve one of the following medications: papaverine, phentolamine, and prostaglandin E1, also known as alprostadil.[10] In addition to injections, there is an alprostadil suppository that can be inserted into the urethra. Once inserted, an erection can begin within 10 minutes and last up to an hour.[12] Medications to treat ED may cause a side effect called priapism.[12]

 

Prevalence of medical diagnosis

In a study published in 2016, based on US health insurance claims data, out of 19,833,939 US males aged ≥18 years, only 1,108,842 (5.6%), were medically diagnosed with erectile dysfunction or on a PDE5I prescription (μ age 55.2 years, σ 11.2 years). Prevalence of diagnosis or prescription was the highest for age group 60–69 at 11.5%, lowest for age group 18–29 at 0.4%, and 2.1% for 30–39, 5.7% for 40–49, 10% for 50–59, 11% for 70–79, 4.6% for 80–89, 0.9% for ≥90, respectively.[59]

 

Focused shockwave therapy

Focused shockwave therapy involves passing short, high frequency acoustic pulses through the skin and into the penis. These waves break down any plaques within the blood vessels, encourage the formation of new vessels, and stimulate repair and tissue regeneration.[60][61]

 

Focused shockwave therapy appears to work best for males with vasculogenic ED, which is a blood vessel disorder that affects blood flow to tissue in the penis. The treatment is painless and has no known side effects. Treatment with shockwave therapy can lead to a significant improvement of the IIEF (International Index of Erectile Function).[62][63][64]

 

Testosterone

Men with low levels of testosterone can experience ED. Taking testosterone may help maintain an erection.[65] Males with type 2 diabetes are twice as likely to have lower levels of testosterone, and are three times more likely to experience ED than non-diabetic men.[65]

 

Pumps

Main article: penis pump

A vacuum erection device helps draw blood into the penis by applying negative pressure. This type of device is sometimes referred to as penis pump and may be used just prior to sexual intercourse. Several types of FDA approved vacuum therapy devices are available under prescription. When pharmacological methods fail, a purpose-designed external vacuum pump can be used to attain erection, with a separate compression ring fitted to the base of the penis to maintain it. These pumps should be distinguished from other penis pumps (supplied without compression rings) which, rather than being used for temporary treatment of impotence, are claimed to increase penis length if used frequently, or vibrate as an aid to masturbation. More drastically, inflatable or rigid penile implants may be fitted surgically.[11]

 

Vibrators

Main article: Vibrator (sex toy)

The vibrator was invented in the late 19th century as a medical instrument for pain relief and the treatment of various ailments. Sometimes described as a massager, the vibrator is used on the body to produce sexual stimulation. Several clinical studies have found vibrators to be an effective solution for Erectile Dysfunction.[66][67] Examples of FDA registered vibrators for erectile dysfunction include MysteryVibe's Tenuto[68] and Reflexonic's Viberect.[69]

 

Surgery

Main article: Penile implant

Often, as a last resort, if other treatments have failed, the most common procedure is prosthetic implants which involves the insertion of artificial rods into the penis.[10]: 26  Some sources show that vascular reconstructive surgeries are viable options for some people.[55]

 

Alternative medicine

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not recommend alternative therapies to treat sexual dysfunction.[70] Many products are advertised as "herbal viagra" or "natural" sexual enhancement products, but no clinical trials or scientific studies support the effectiveness of these products for the treatment of ED, and synthetic chemical compounds similar to sildenafil have been found as adulterants in many of these products.[71][72][73][74][75] The FDA has warned consumers that any sexual enhancement product that claims to work as well as prescription products is likely to contain such a contaminant.[76] A 2021 review indicated that ginseng had "only trivial effects on erectile function or satisfaction with intercourse compared to placebo".[77]

 

History

Further information: Impotence and marriage

Further information: Medicalisation of sexuality

 

An unhappy wife is complaining to the qadi about her husband's impotence. Ottoman miniature.

Attempts to treat the symptoms described by ED date back well over 1,000 years. In the 8th century, males of Ancient Rome and Greece wore talismans of rooster and goat genitalia, believing these talismans would serve as an aphrodisiac and promote sexual function.[78] In the 13th century, Albertus Magnus recommended ingesting roasted wolf penis as a remedy for impotence.[78] During the late 16th and 17th centuries in France, male impotence was considered a crime, as well as legal grounds for a divorce. The practice, which involved inspection of the complainants by court experts, was declared obscene in 1677.[79][80]

 

The first major publication describing a broad medicalization of sexual disorders was the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1952.[81] In the early 20th century, medical folklore held that 90-95% of cases of ED were psychological in origin, but around the 1980s research took the opposite direction of searching for physical causes of sexual dysfunction, which also happened in the 1920s and 30s.[82] Physical causes as explanations continue to dominate literature when compared with psychological explanations as of 2022.[83]

 

Treatments in the 80s for ED included penile implants and intracavernosal injections.[82] The first successful vacuum erection device, or penis pump, was developed by Vincent Marie Mondat in the early 1800s.[78] A more advanced device based on a bicycle pump was developed by Geddings Osbon, a Pentecostal preacher, in the 1970s. In 1982, he received FDA approval to market the product.[84] John R. Brinkley initiated a boom in male impotence treatments in the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s, with radio programs that recommended expensive goat gland implants and "mercurochrome" injections as the path to restored male virility, including operations by surgeon Serge Voronoff.

 

Modern drug therapy for ED made a significant advance in 1983, when British physiologist Giles Brindley dropped his trousers and demonstrated to a shocked Urodynamics Society audience showing his papaverine-induced erection.[85] The current most common treatment for ED, the oral PDE5 inhibitor known as sildenafil (Viagra) was approved for use for Pfizer by the FDA in 1998, which at the time of release was the fastest selling drug in history.[81][86][87] Sildenafil largely replaced SSRI treatments for ED at the time[88] and proliferated new types of specialised pharmaceutical marketing which emphasised social connotations of ED and Viagra rather than its physical effects.[89][90]

 

Anthropology

Anthropological research presents ED not as a disorder but, as a normal, and sometimes even welcome sign of healthy aging. Wentzell's study of 250 Mexican males in their 50s and 60s found that "most simply did not see decreasing erectile function as a biological pathology".[91] The males interviewed described the decrease in erectile function "as an aid for aging in socially appropriate ways".[91] A common theme amongst the interviewees showed that respectable older males shifted their focus toward the domestic sphere into a "second stage of life".[91] The Mexican males of this generation often pursued sex outside of marriage; decreasing erectile function acted as an aid to overcoming infidelity thus helping to attain the ideal "second stage" of life.[91] A 56-year-old about to retire from the public health service said he would now "dedicate myself to my wife, the house, gardening, caring for the grandchildren—the Mexican classic".[91] Wentzell found that treating ED as a pathology was antithetical to the social view these males held of themselves, and their purpose at this stage of their lives.

 

In the 20th and 21st centuries, anthropologists investigated how common treatments for ED are built upon assumptions of institutionalized social norms. In offering a range of clinical treatments to 'correct' a person's ability to produce an erection, biomedical institutions encourage the public to strive for prolonged sexual function. Anthropologists argue that a biomedical focus places emphasis on the biological processes of fixing the body thereby disregarding holistic ideals of health and aging.[92] By relying on a wholly medical approach, Western biomedicine can become blindsided by bodily dysfunctions which can be understood as appropriate functions of age, and not as a medical problem.[93] Anthropologists understand that a biosocial approach to ED considers a person's decision to undergo clinical treatment more likely a result of "society, political economy, history, and culture" than a matter of personal choice.[92] In rejecting biomedical treatment for ED, males can challenge common forms of medicalized social control by deviating from what is considered the normal approach to dysfunction.

 

Lexicology

The Latin term impotentia coeundi describes simple inability to insert the penis into the vagina; it is now mostly replaced by more precise terms, such as erectile dysfunction (ED). The study of ED within medicine is covered by andrology, a sub-field within urology. Research indicates that ED is common, and it is suggested that approximately 40% of males experience symptoms compatible with ED, at least occasionally.[94] The condition is also on occasion called phallic impotence.[95] Its antonym, or opposite condition, is priapism.[96][97]

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erectile_dysfunction

 

Priapism is a condition in which a penis remains erect for hours in the absence of stimulation or after stimulation has ended.[3] There are three types: ischemic (low-flow), nonischemic (high-flow), and recurrent ischemic (intermittent).[3] Most cases are ischemic.[3] Ischemic priapism is generally painful while nonischemic priapism is not.[3] In ischemic priapism, most of the penis is hard; however, the glans penis is not.[3] In nonischemic priapism, the entire penis is only somewhat hard.[3] Very rarely, clitoral priapism occurs in women.[4]

 

Sickle cell disease is the most common cause of ischemic priapism.[3] Other causes include medications such as antipsychotics, SSRIs, blood thinners and prostaglandin E1, as well as drugs such as cocaine.[3][5] Ischemic priapism occurs when blood does not adequately drain from the penis.[3] Nonischemic priapism is typically due to a connection forming between an artery and the corpus cavernosum or disruption of the parasympathetic nervous system resulting in increased arterial flow.[3] Nonischemic priapism may occur following trauma to the penis or a spinal cord injury.[3] Diagnosis may be supported by blood gas analysis of blood aspirated from the penis or an ultrasound.[3]

 

Treatment depends on the type.[3] Ischemic priapism is typically treated with a nerve block of the penis followed by aspiration of blood from the corpora cavernosa.[3] If this is not sufficient, the corpus cavernosum may be irrigated with cold, normal saline or injected with phenylephrine.[3] Nonischemic priapism is often treated with cold packs and compression.[3] Surgery may be done if usual measures are not effective.[3] In ischemic priapism, the risk of permanent scarring of the penis begins to increase after four hours and definitely occurs after 48 hours.[3][6] Priapism occurs in about 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 100,000 males per year.[3]

 

Classification

Priapism is classified into three groups: ischemic (low-flow), nonischemic (high-flow), and recurrent ischemic.[3] The majority of cases (19 out of 20) are ischemic in nature.[3]

 

Some sources give a duration of four hours as a definition of priapism, but others give six. Per the University Hospital Schleswig Holstein, "The duration of a normal erection before it is classifiable as priapism is still controversial. Ongoing penile erections for more than 6 hours can be classified as priapism."[7]

 

In women

Priapism in women (continued, painful erection of the clitoris) is significantly rarer than priapism in men and is known as clitoral priapism or clitorism.[4] It is associated with persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD).[8] Only a few case reports of women experiencing clitoral priapism exist.[4]

 

Signs and symptoms

Complications

Because ischemic priapism causes the blood to remain in the penis for unusually long periods of time, the blood becomes deprived of oxygen, which can cause damage to the penile tissue. Such damage can result in erectile dysfunction or disfigurement of the penis.[9] In extreme cases, if the penis develops severe vascular disease, the priapism can result in penile gangrene.[10]

 

Low-flow priapism

Causes of low-flow priapism include sickle cell anemia (most common in children), leukemia, and other blood dyscrasias such as thalassemia and multiple myeloma, and the use of various drugs, as well as cancers.[11] A genome-wide association study on Brazilian patients with sickle cell disease identified four single nucleotide polymorphisms in LINC02537 and NAALADL2 significantly associated with priapism.[12]

 

Other conditions that can cause priapism include Fabry's disease, as well as neurologic disorders such as spinal cord lesions and spinal cord trauma (priapism has been reported in people who have been hanged; see death erection).

 

Priapism can also be caused by reactions to medications. The most common medications that cause priapism are intra-cavernous injections for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (papaverine, alprostadil). Other medication groups reported are antihypertensives (e.g. Doxazosin), antipsychotics (e.g., chlorpromazine, clozapine), antidepressants (most notably trazodone), anti-convulsant and mood stabilizer drugs such as sodium valproate.[13] Anticoagulants, cantharides (Spanish Fly) and recreational drugs (alcohol, heroin and cocaine) have been associated. Priapism is also known to occur from bites of the Brazilian wandering spider.[14]

 

High-flow priapism

Causes of high-flow priapism include:

 

blunt trauma to the perineum or penis, with laceration of the cavernous artery, which can generate an arterial-lacunar fistula.[11]

Anticoagulants (heparin and warfarin).

Antihypertensives (i.e., hydralazine, guanethidine and propranolol).

Hormones (i.e., gonadotropin releasing hormone and testosterone).

Diagnosis

The diagnosis is often based on the history of the condition as well as a physical exam.[3]

 

Blood gas testing the blood from the cavernosa of the penis can help in the diagnosis.[3] If the low-flow type of priapism is present, the blood typically has a low pH, while if the high-flow type is present, the pH is typically normal.[3] Color Doppler ultrasound may also help differentiate the two.[3] Testing a person to make sure they do not have a hemoglobinopathy may also be reasonable.[3]

 

Ultrasonography

 

Color Doppler ultrasound demonstrating a hypoechoic collection that corresponds to hematoma with arteriovenous fistula secondary to traumatic injury of the penis due to impact with bicycle handlebars, resulting in high-flow priapism[11]

Penile ultrasonography with Doppler is the imaging method of choice, because it is noninvasive, widely available, and highly sensitive. By means of this method, it is possible to diagnose priapism and differentiate between its low- and high-flow forms.[11]

 

In low-flow (ischemic) priapism the flow in the cavernous arteries is reduced or absent. As the condition progresses, there is an increase in echogenicity of the corpora cavernosa, attributed to tissue edema. Eventually, changes in the echotexture of the corpora cavernosa can be observed due to the fibrotic transformation generated by tissue anoxia.[11]

 

In high-flow priapism normal or increased, turbulent blood flow in the cavernous arteries is seen. The area surrounding the fistula presents a hypoechoic, irregular lesion in the cavernous tissue.[11]

 

Treatment

Medical evaluation is recommended for erections that last for longer than four hours. Pain can often be reduced with a dorsal penile nerve block or penile ring block.[3] For those with nonischemic priapism, cold packs and pressure to the area may be sufficient.[3]

 

Pseudoephedrine

Orally administered pseudoephedrine is a first-line treatment for priapism.[15] Erection is largely a parasympathetic response, so the sympathetic action of pseudoephedrine may serve to relieve this condition. Pseudoephedrine is an alpha-agonist agent that exerts a constriction effect on smooth muscle of corpora cavernosum, which in turn facilitates venous outflow. Pseudoephedrine is no longer available in some countries.

 

Aspiration

For those with ischemic priapism, the initial treatment is typically aspiration of blood from the corpus cavernosum.[3] This is done on either side.[3] If this is not sufficiently effective, then cold normal saline may be injected and removed.[3]

 

Medications

If aspiration is not sufficient, a small dose of phenylephrine may be injected into the corpus cavernosum.[3] Side effects of phenylephrine may include: high blood pressure, slow heart rate, and arrhythmia.[3] If this medication is used, it is recommended that people be monitored for at least an hour after.[3] For those with recurrent ischemic priapism, diethylstilbestrol (DES) or terbutaline may be tried.[3]

 

Surgery

Distal shunts, such as the Winter's,[clarification needed] involve puncturing the glans (the distal part of the penis) into one of the cavernosa, where the old, stagnant blood is held. This causes the blood to leave the penis and return to the circulation. This procedure can be performed by a urologist at the bedside. Winter's shunts are often the first invasive technique used, especially in hematologically induced priapism, as it is relatively simple and repeatable.[16]

 

Proximal shunts, such as the Quackel's,[clarification needed] are more involved and entail operative dissection in the perineum where the corpora meet the spongiosum while making an incision in both and suturing both openings together.[17] Shunts created between the corpora cavernosa and great saphenous vein called a Grayhack shunt can be done though this technique is rarely used.[18]

 

As the complication rates with prolonged priapism are high, early penile prosthesis implantation may be considered.[3] As well as allowing early resumption of sexual activity, early implantation can avoid the formation of dense fibrosis and, hence, a shortened penis.

 

Sickle cell anemia

In sickle cell anemia, treatment is initially with intravenous fluids, pain medication, and oxygen therapy.[19][3] The typical treatment of priapism may be carried out as well.[3] Blood transfusions are not usually recommended as part of the initial treatment, but if other treatments are not effective, exchange transfusion may be done.[19][3]

 

History

Persistent semi-erections and intermittent states of prolonged erections have historically been sometimes called semi-priapism.[20]

 

Terminology

The name comes from the Greek god Priapus (Ancient Greek: Πρίαπος), a fertility god, often represented with a disproportionately large phallus.[21

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priapism

I took these photos inside the infectious ward of the Karol Jonschers Children's Hospital, Poznań. It was a time when epidemic armageddon caused by RSV and the next wave of covid was going through pediatric wards. All isolation rooms were then occupied by infected children under the care of a parent. In the corridor there are rows of cardboard boxes with overalls, spare beds. Some kids were treated with oxygen. Less than 2-year-old kid subjected to high-flow oxygen therapy. Only there were fewer ventilators here than in adults. But they also happened.

 

The photos would not have been made without help and kindness from the crew of Department VIII. Special thanks are due to prof. dr hab. n. med. Magdalena Figlerowicz and Karolina Samarzewska, MA, who agreed to the presence of a annoying man with a camera in their clinic.

 

Autmn/winter 22/23. Poznań, PL.

I took these photos inside the infectious ward of the Karol Jonschers Children's Hospital, Poznań. It was a time when epidemic armageddon caused by RSV and the next wave of covid was going through pediatric wards. All isolation rooms were then occupied by infected children under the care of a parent. In the corridor there are rows of cardboard boxes with overalls, spare beds. Some kids were treated with oxygen. Less than 2-year-old kid subjected to high-flow oxygen therapy. Only there were fewer ventilators here than in adults. But they also happened.

 

The photos would not have been made without help and kindness from the crew of Department VIII. Special thanks are due to prof. dr hab. n. med. Magdalena Figlerowicz and Karolina Samarzewska, MA, who agreed to the presence of a annoying man with a camera in their clinic.

 

Autmn/winter 22/23. Poznań, PL.

To see this video in it's entirety visit www.rhinoplastyspecialist.com/mediapage.asp

 

This is Melody’s experience as she has scar revision surgery performed by Beverly Hills doctor Paul Nassif.

Scar tissue forms as skin heals after an injury (such as an accident) or surgery. The amount of scarring may be determined by the wound size, depth, and location; the person's age; heredity; and skin characteristics including color (pigmentation).

Depending on the extent of the surgery, scar revision can be done while you are awake (local anesthesia), sleeping (sedated), or deep asleep and pain-free (general anesthesia).

When to have scar revision done is not always clear. Scars shrink and become less noticeable as they age. You may be able to wait for surgical revision until the scar lightens in color, which can be several months or even a year after the wound has healed. For some scars, however, it is best to have revision surgery 60-90 days after the scar matures.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a method of administering pure oxygen at greater than atmospheric pressure to a patient in order to improve or correct conditions. By providing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber we are able to deliver 10-15 times more oxygen then if delivered at sea level or at normal atmospheric levels. Some of the effects this has are to promote the growth of new blood vessels, decrease swelling and inflammation, deactivate toxins, increase the body’s ability to fight infections, clear out toxins and metabolic waste products, and improve the rate of healing. HBOT should be used to complement conventional therapies and treatments.

 

www.spaldingplasticsurgery.com/

 

Spalding Cosmetic Surgery and Dermatology

120 S. Spalding Drive Suite 315

Beverly Hills, Ca. 90212

Tel: (310) 275-2467

Fax: (310) 275-6651

This is a lovely sight that has been missing recently... we have

had gray damp cold days with no sunshine outside but warm

and sunshine inside cause sometimes it is a state of mind....

had a rough evening Friday night but God was with us and

we made it through. Larry is on his second full week of HBO

treatments (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy). We are praying they

will promote healing in his left foot where in December he had

to have some surgery. He has had 8 treatments so far with

the holidays holding them up but now we are on a regular

schedule... Monday through Friday and he has 22 to go. He

had some tests today to check some things and they revealed

he still has bad circulation in his legs but we are optimistic that

even with that the HBO treatments will work... please pray this

with us dear friends and I thank you in advance for your prayer

support!!! We still look up and are thankful for both the valleys

and the mountain tops knowing that God goes before us

preparing the way & that every dark cloud has a silver lining!!!!

Remembering and claiming once again:

With men this is impossible;

but with God all things are possible.

Matthew 19:26

Perfect song - www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUBY9TxnAMw

and one of my faves to go with this post

shared with me from my dear Flickr friend Joy!!!

Thank you sweet Joy!!! Visit her beautiful inspiring work at:

www.flickr.com/photos/chickadeedeedee/16260934341/in/cont...

Taipei 101 offers an alternative to traditional cramped shopping environments by elevating the ceilings of each floor. The fourth floor measures 40 meters to the skirt dome, and offers an incredible visual and dining experience. The 800-ping SOGO Department Store on the second floor is designed for women aged 25 to 35, and will focus on cosmetics, lingerie, and clothing, creating a new concept--SOGO Beauty Plaza. Shopping will no longer be hectic, but easy and elegant in comfortable and spacious surroundings. Some 21 cosmetics brands from five major cosmetic companies--SKI-II, Shu Uemura, Lancme, Estee Lauder, and Shiseido--will each occupy a space one-and-a-half larger than that of SOGO. Shih Shui Ya has 70-ping of space offering a Mediterranean atmosphere of quick beauty, hair, and body care to working women; it also offers music therapy in oxygenated rooms, and the latest Japanese oxygen therapy which customers can enjoy while seated in first-class airplane chairs [taiwanfun.com]

Taipei 101 offers an alternative to traditional cramped shopping environments by elevating the ceilings of each floor. The fourth floor measures 40 meters to the skirt dome, and offers an incredible visual and dining experience. The 800-ping SOGO Department Store on the second floor is designed for women aged 25 to 35, and will focus on cosmetics, lingerie, and clothing, creating a new concept--SOGO Beauty Plaza. Shopping will no longer be hectic, but easy and elegant in comfortable and spacious surroundings. Some 21 cosmetics brands from five major cosmetic companies--SKI-II, Shu Uemura, Lancme, Estee Lauder, and Shiseido--will each occupy a space one-and-a-half larger than that of SOGO. Shih Shui Ya has 70-ping of space offering a Mediterranean atmosphere of quick beauty, hair, and body care to working women; it also offers music therapy in oxygenated rooms, and the latest Japanese oxygen therapy which customers can enjoy while seated in first-class airplane chairs [taiwanfun.com]

At Wellington airport to fly to Christchurch for an appointment at the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Unit. The thing behind me is Smaug from The Hobbit.

 

Thursday, 1st December 2016.

 

This is my third leap year of 366.

In 2008 I was reconnecting and waving a virtual 'hello'.

In 2012 I was misty and autumnal.

My first time in the chamber ...

My first session of hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

 

It was quite snug in the chamber with four of us in there. Three patients and one nurse. The next day there were five of us.

 

It was quite a surreal experience. After the door was closed the chamber became quite warm as it was pressurised to 2.3 atmospheres. We were offered boiled sweets and water to help us 'pop' our ears. I was advised to hold my nose and blow to pop my ears if sucking sweets and swallowing water didn't work.

 

When the right pressure had been achieved the nurse handed me my mask and fastened it for me. For the next 45 minutes I breathed pure oxygen while trying to read a book. But my mind kept wandering. We'd been told that it didn't matter how we breathed, just so long as we breathed. But should I take deep breaths? Would that get even more oxygen into me? If I stopped thinking about my breathing - and I wasn't sure I could as I could hear each breath that I took and, I was sure, the breaths that the other patients were taking - if I didn't think about it might I forget to breathe? I have been known to forget to breathe but only when coming round from anaesthetic after an operation or after midazolam at the dentist. I didn't have any pains or feel strange in any way at the moment (other than my thoughts running around all over the place) but would that change as the minutes ticked away and the oxygen saturated my body? (It didn't).

 

Forty minutes later I heard a clang and a whooshing, sucking sound. A few minutes after that the nurse announced that it was break time and we could take our masks off. I was then given a cup of tea, two cream crackers and a slice of processed cheese. They had been delivered through a hatch in the wall and that had been the cause of the clang and the whoosh. After ten minutes the cups were collected, the nurse promised that "the second half goes a lot quicker" and I was helped to put my mask back on. At this point I realised that there was a small fancy clock on the outside ledge of the porthole to my right so I could see the time.

 

The nurse also told me that when the pressure is brought back to normal (known as 'going back up') she would use her own mask and at that point it would start to get cold. There was a blanket over the arm of my chair and I might want to put that on when she put her mask on.

 

So, one down, another 39 to go.

 

Monday, 9th January 2017.

 

For 117 pictures in 2017 - 77 masks.

 

Chatting as they get their hair done. BRITONS may not always have had Botox but that has not stopped the long-standing love affair with the beauty parlour as revealed in a series of stunning retro pictures from the Swinging Sixties. The incredible images show women in the 1960s chatting to each other as they have their hair done, wearing cucumber face masks and have a full body wrap in their quest for beauty. Other remarkable photos show women taking part experimental treatment including an electric face mask, hot wax being applied to help sweat weight off and ultra-violet treatment. A beauty parlour is an establishment that deals with cosmetic treatments for both men and women. There is a distinction between a beauty salon and a hair salon and although many small businesses do offer both sets of treatments; beauty salons provide extended services related to skin health, facial aesthetic, foot care, nail manicures, aromatherapy, — even meditation, oxygen therapy, mud baths, and many other services. In the 1950s, with the advent of colour film, the beauty industry got a colourful make-over with bright rouges all the rage. With men returning from war and the resulting baby boom, all emphasis was on family life. Women came back from work and resigned to life as housewives. With so much time on their hands, they spent a lot of time pampering themselves to look glamorous. In the Sixties our idea of beauty was transformed by the introduction of the mini-skirt, bikinis, and by style-icons such as Twiggy, who se the standard for later models with her skinny and androgynous look. TopFoto / Retronaut / mediadrumimages.com

"This is my cousin Virginia (Ginny) Ratliff behind their home at 1474 Oxford St in Redwood City about in the late 1940s. That area behind her would be covered with houses by 1950.

 

Unfortunately, Harold Ratliff’s Marriage to Virginia French only lasted a couple of years. He later married Carol Sufczynski Dierks of Redwood City on March 26,1949."

_ Michael Ratliff Lutz

 

www.sfgenealogy.com/sanmateo/history/ambulance/smambulanc...

 

As remembered by

Michael Ratliff Lutz

 

Introduction:

When I began researching my family’s history in Redwood City, California in the year 2004 I was certain that I would be able to find a lot of information about my uncle, Ralph H. Ratliff since his death in March of 1963 was front-page news in The Redwood City Tribune. To my surprise, he was nearly a forgotten man. The local historical societies only had a couple of old newspaper clippings. I only had the clippings and photos that my mother, Nina Mardel Ratliff (Lutz) (Womer), had saved in her scrapbook over the years to work with. With the help of a few relatives I have been able to reconstruct the story of Ralph Ratliff and his Peninsula Ambulance Service.

 

Ratliff Enterprises as described in a 1961 Redwood City Tribune article:

 

Twelve women in three shifts work around the clock with their fingers virtually on the pulse of a vast segment of professional and business life. These women answer a monthly average of 38,000 telephone calls.

They are employees of Ratliff Enterprises, Inc a family owner corporation occupying its own two-story building at 1260 Marshall Street. Ratliff Enterprises operates the Redwood City Telephone Answering Service, which embraces the Sequoia District Physicians Exchange. It also operates the Peninsula Ambulance Service and the Peninsula Hospital Rental Service. Its ambulances respond to 500 calls monthly. The County of San Mateo subsidizes peninsula Ambulance Service.

 

Its rental service rents out anything needed for the care of patients in the home…such things as oxygen, refrigerated tents, wheel chairs, therapy lamps, traction equipment and beds.

 

The officers of the corporation are Ralph H. Ratliff, president: his wife Irene I. Ratliff: vice president their two sons and a daughter, K. Harold Ratliff and Ralph J. Ratliff, and Mrs. Virginia Collins, directors. Mrs. Ratliff manages the answering service with Mrs. Collins as the assistant manager. Harold is the manager and bookkeeper of the ambulance and rental divisions.

 

Mateo County uses a subsidy system with Peninsula Ambulance Service so they could discontinue their own emergency ambulance service. If the company couldn’t collect from individuals, the county would reimburse them $20 per call for all service ordered through police systems. Most calls came through the Sheriffs Office.

 

In 1960 Peninsula Ambulance received a subsidy of $18,000, a considerable savings compared to what it would have cost to operate their own system. Ambulance employees were taught advanced Red Cross first aide, basic obstetrics and oxygen therapy.

 

As to obstetrics, Ralph Ratliff personally delivered 10 babies while working shifts with his ambulance crews, three of these births occurred in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It just happened that 10 mothers waited until the very last minute. Unlike in the storybooks, none of the babies were named after him.

 

The ambulance fees are $25 per call plus supplies used at the accident scene like splints and oxygen, and $12.50 if a second patient on a stretcher was involved. A third person with minor injuries could ride with the driver for free.

 

I was able to find reports of two of those baby deliveries in the San Mateo Times archives, one in La Honda on July 14, 1949, and another in the back of the ambulance on August 21 1957. It is true that neither baby was named Ralph after my uncle, but then again, they were both girls.

Oops, I nearly missed the boy he delivered on July 2, 1954. He wasn’t named Ralph either.

 

Recent generations probably don’t realize that emergency medical service used to be provided by private ambulance companies. Until the late 1970s when EMTs were stationed in firehouses, private ambulance services like Peninsula Ambulance Service and Harold Ratliff’s California Ambulance Service would respond to medical emergencies. Ambulance personnel received advanced first aide training from the American Red Cross. In fact, Ralph Ratliff was a first aide instructor for the Red Cross for several years. The classes were taught at the Sequoia Chapter of the American Red Cross, 3540 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park. There were six, two-hour sessions taught in the evening, ending in a Red Cross certificate for those who passed the course.

 

I’m probably not the best person to tell the story of Peninsula Ambulance since my contact with this part of my family was rather inconsistent over the years. My mother was half owner of Home Creek Resort at Huntington lake in Fresno County so except for two years in 1951 and 1952 when we wintered over with Ralph Ratliff’s family in Redwood City, my contact was limited to a couple of weeks on vacation every year. In my senior high school year, 1962-63 we moved to Redwood City, but that was just a few months before my uncle died. There was a time when you couldn’t go anywhere in Redwood City without bumping into a member of the Ratliff family, but now it seems I’m the only one left. Fortunately, my mother saved numerous newspaper articles and photographs that should be helpful.

 

Ralph H. Ratliff was born in Tallula, Illinois on November 05, 1903 to George O. and Carrie Ratliff of Jacksonville, Illinois. The family, including his older brother Frank Jerry Ratliff, and younger sister and my mother, Nina Mardel Ratliff later moved to Los Angeles then to San Francisco in the 1920s. My grandfather, George O. Ratliff was in the real estate business but Ralph found working on cars more to his liking, so for several years he worked as an auto mechanic in San Francisco.

 

Prior to leaving Los Angeles, Ralph had a brief marriage to Mildred Hensley, and a son Ralph H. Ratliff Jr., born October 14, 1922. Ralph Jr. moved to San Francisco with the rest of the family and was cared for by my mother and grandmother until Ralph married Irene I. Haseltine of Redwood City in Palo Alto, California on May 8, 1925. Their first son, Kenneth “Harold” Ratliff was born November 04, 1925. They had two additional children, Ralph Junior Ratliff, born January 25, 1927 and Virginia Lois Ratliff, born May 21, 1928.

 

Irene Haseltine was a Redwood City girl, her emigrated to Redwood City from Wisconsin in the early 1900s. Ralph and Irene Ratliff continued to live in San Francisco until 1939 when, with financial assistance from his father George Ratliff, he opened the Peninsula Garage in Redwood City.

 

The first location of the Peninsula Garage was near Bayshore Highway, near Main and Bradford today. This section of Bayshore is now Veteran’s Blvd. The location near the highway made it easier for both the towing business and the ambulance business to respond quickly. When they moved to 432 Middlefield Rd. they were about the same distance from the highway as they were at Main and Bradford. There were no freeways then. The highways all had stoplights at major intersections. Bayshore Highway had only two lanes in each direction with no center divider. There were very few buildings along old Bayshore but there were a lot of billboards

 

Towing was a large part of the Peninsula Garage business. It was the towing business that got Ralph Ratliff started in the ambulance business. Ralph’s tow trucks were arriving at auto accident scenes long before the ambulance arrived. In 1944, Mickey Collins, then chief of police, asked my uncle to provide the community with some kind of ambulance service. Ralph purchased a used ambulance from a taxicab company, took first aide classes, and went into business. It’s not clear why a taxi company had an ambulance.

 

At first the Peninsula Garage and Peninsula Ambulance coexisted at the same address at 450 Main St., Redwood City. They also shared the same phone number for a while which probably caused some confusion, but there is no record of a tow truck responding to an ambulance call.

 

During the early 1940s the Ratliff family lived on Oxford Street in Redwood City. Oxford Street was pretty much out in the country then. There were very few other houses around. Later they moved to a large white house at 432 Middlefield Rd. near the corner of old Bayshore Highway. That location is now a county parking lot. That house also served as the base for the ambulance service.

 

This article about my cousin Harold Ratliff’s wedding reception pretty much sums up the Ratliff family in Redwood City during World War 2. My mother was living with the Ratliff’s on Oxford Street then. My father was away in the army and I was just born a month before or so before the article was written so it was easier for her to live with relatives. I was at this reception but don’t remember much.

 

Ironically, I was born in San Francisco. My family was from San Francisco but by 1944 my grand parents had moved to Burlingame and my mother was living in Redwood City. They all decided to go to a fireworks display at Kezar stadium in 1944, and that’s when and where I was born.

 

Redwood City Tribune, August 1944:

A large wedding party and reception was held in honor of newly wedded Mr. and Mrs. Harold Kenneth Ratliff, the former Miss Virginia Alberta French of San Francisco, at the home of the groom’s grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Alva Haseltine of 479 Sequoia Ave. last week.

Because of Harold’s short leave from the navy, in which he is a seaman second class, the couple was married in Reno on Aug. 23. They met several years ago when Virginia visited her aunt, Mrs. Tom Kelly of Redwood City.

 

For her wedding the bride chose the navy colors of navy blue and white. She wore a navy blue suit with white accessories and a gardenia corsage.

 

Harold is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R.H. Ratliff of 1474 Oxford St. He is the brother of Ralph and Virginia Ratliff who attend Sequoia High School and Ralph Harold Ratliff Jr. who is now in the U.S. Army at Camp Haan. Harold also attended Sequoia High School.

 

At the reception the table was decorated in blue and white centered with a tiered wedding cake topped with a miniature sailor and his bride. Many gifts were received by the newlyweds.

 

Attending the reception were Mr. and Mrs. George Ratliff, grandparents of the groom, Mrs. Nina Mardel Lutz, aunt, and son Michael Lutz; Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Keyser, aunt and uncle, and cousins, Bonnie, Phillip and Jimmie Keyser; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Haseltine, aunt and uncle, and Neal and Dale Haseltine; Mrs. Jasper Haseltine, aunt, and Joanne and Freddie Haseltine, and Sgt. and Mrs. Herbert England, cousins, and daughter, Sharon Lee.

 

Also attending were Sgt. and Mrs. John Whittington, Mr. and Mrs. Tony Alvis and sons, Mr. Norman Peterson and Kenneth Peterson, USN.

 

Unable to attend were Mr. Jasper Haseltine, uncle, who is now overseas with the merchant marine, Sgt. Eddie Thoemke of the U.S. Army, and Mrs. Thoemke, uncle and aunt; and Sgt. Richard Lutz, uncle, who is currently stationed in Roswell, New Mexico.

 

This is my cousin Virginia (Ginny) Ratliff behind their home at 1474 Oxford St in Redwood City about in the late 1940s. That area behind her would be covered with houses by 1950.

Unfortunately, Harold Ratliff’s Marriage to Virginia French only lasted a couple of years. He later married Carol Sufczynski Dierks of Redwood City on March 26,1949.

 

Around 1948 the Ratliff family and the business moved to a new location at 432 Middlefield Road, now a parking lot for the San Mateo County Offices. The garage was sold and they purchased an answering service, Sequoia District Physicians Exchange.

 

Both the businesses and the family occupied the same large house. The answering service occupied what was a large living room. Fortunately the house must have had two living rooms, because there was another room of equal size with a connecting door. The upstairs served as quarters for the ambulance crews.

 

There was enough room in the house to accommodate my mother and me the winters of 1951 and 1952 during the off-season for my mother’s business, Home Creek Resort at Huntington Lake, CA. From November to March we lived in Redwood City. I attended Monroe School, and mom worked shifts at the answering service.

 

On October 08, 1949 my uncle Ralph was nearly killed in a three-car pile up on old Pacheco Pass. He was on his way to Home Creek Resort at Huntington Lake in Fresno County. The resort was co-owned by my mother, and uncle Frank “Jerry” Ratliff. Every fall the family gathered at the resort during deer season. I can remember my uncle in what was nearly a full body cast lying in a hospital bed in the living room of that house on Middlefield.

 

Getting to Monroe School was an easy walk then because Bradford connected Middlefield Rd. and Allerton St. Ralph Junior Ratliff and his family lived at 730 Allerton diagonally across from Monroe School so they were available to point me in the right direction when I got lost my first day. In one of those little coincidences that happen now and then, my cousin’s landlady at 730 Allerton was Mrs. Mary Tesolin, the mother of Carmen Tesolin, my future wife, though I didn’t actually meet her until 1963. In 1955, my cousin Ralph Junior Ratliff and family lived in the old carriage house on property at 726-730 Allerton Street. It sat next to an old farmhouse also owned by Mary “Sironi” Tesolin, Carmen’s mother.

 

Both of Ralph Ratliff’s sons worked shifts for the ambulance service as well as working other jobs, so Ralph Jr. and Harold were always descending the stairs to raid the refrigerator. One of Harold’s sons, Kenny, also lived there. Ralph and Irene Ratliff assumed the responsibility of caring for Kenneth Ratliff after Harold’s divorce from his first wife Virginia. They continued to care for Kenny until he joined the Navy in 1965.

 

Kenny and I slept in the glassed in front porch of the house. I remember it being quite cold, especially since my aunt Irene insisted on an open window, even in mid winter. Something about the health benefits of fresh air. It was also noisy. The police radio was always on in the living room for some reason. I didn’t understand why the radio wasn’t upstairs with the ambulance guys. The house was also very close to Bayshore Highway, and there was a stop light at Middlefield and Bayshore. Trucks that stopped at the light had to rev up their engines to get moving again. On the other side were the trains. The tracks were, a few blocks away, but the trains ran all night. I don’t think I got a lotta sleep.

 

In the late 1950s Harold and Ralph Junior Ratliff purchased the Flying “A” service station at the corner of Middlefield and Bayshore. Ralph Sr. helped with the financing.

 

In 1959 Ralph Junior Ratliff left the business and eventually moved his family to Oregon leaving Harold Ratliff the sole owner of the business.

 

In the late 1950s the County of San Mateo decided it needed the block that housed both Peninsula Ambulance Service and Ratliff’s Flying “A” so the Ambulance Business moved to a new location, and built a new building at 1260 Marshall St., and Harold Ratliff rejoined the Ambulance Company. The building on Marshall is still there and currently occupied by Aloha Flowers (2005).

 

Before the Kaiser Medical Center was completed in 1968 we used to set off 4th of July fireworks in front of the Ambulance Service. Kaiser was virtually built in our front yard. During the 1960s while Kaiser was being built my entire family worked at 1260 Marshall. My uncle ran the businesses, my cousins drove ambulances, and my mother ran the medical supply for a while. My aunt ran Sequoia Physicians & Surgeons Exchange in the same building. I even worked there when I was in high school in 1963.

 

After I was discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1967 I used the skills that I learned as a hospital corpsman to moonlight for various ambulance services while I was attending San Francisco State University. The skills required by civilian ambulance employees were nearly identical to those skills used by a field medic (corpsman) with the U.S. Marines. I worked in the operating room at the old Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. That made it possible for me to moonlight some nights and weekends for Bob’s Ambulance Service in Oakland while still on active duty.

 

Often, history is what is going on in the background of a photograph so the following photographs not only show some vintage Peninsula Ambulances from the 1940s and 50s, but also shows a large facility that belonged to the Mobil Oil Company. The Mobil facility was directly across Middlefield from both Peninsula Ambulance and the Flying “A” station. You can also see a tower appears close but was actually several blocks away at Frank’s Tannery. Just across the Highway from the Flying “A” was the Redwood City Rodeo Grounds. That’s about where the Department of Motor Vehicles is located now.

 

In 1961 Ralph Ratliff was voted president of the California Ambulance Association. On September 6th of that same year the San Mateo Times reported that my uncle and a California Highway Patrol Officer named Fred Hagen climbed down a 400-foot cliff on Tunitas Road to rescue a 16-year-old boy who was thrown from a Jeep when it hit a tree. My uncle was 57 years old at the time and had several younger drivers on his payroll, but he enjoyed the work so much that he was still taking regular turns behind the wheel of the ambulance.

People forget that before Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and specialized rescue vehicles, ambulance services did it all. Peninsula Ambulance Service covered most of San Mateo County, from delivering a baby in La Honda to rescuing a teenager coastside. I remember hearing my uncle’s voice on the ambulance radio informing the hospital that he was coming in from Half Moon Bay with one up and two down. That meant that he had two patients on gurneys and one on a hammock like device used only in extreme emergencies.

 

In most cases there were no freeways, so when an ambulance was coming in from coastside, it was traveling narrow twisting roads often in the fog. Some of those roads are still no fun to drive today.

 

The old Five Points Hotel at 2015 El Camino Real was the location of frequent calls. There was always trouble and ambulance calls to that location were always seen as dangerous. My uncle used to always complain about employees being injured on calls to the hotel. Some of the legendary danger may have been exaggerated, but the Redwood City Police closed down the hotel in the early 1950s.

 

My uncle was credited with saving the life of a man whose throat had been cut in a knife fight in the “five points area” on January 17, 1955. Somehow he managed keep the man from bleeding to death from a severed jugular vein on the way to the hospital, this according to the San Mateo Times.

 

It wasn’t always people who were rescued. When a 16 year old boy hit a dog with his motor scooter in 1957, he not only delivered the boy with a broken leg to the hospital, but he also delivered the dog to a vet.

 

That same year Uncle Ralph had to descend on a sling from a crane into a concrete vat to rescue a worker with a fractured spine. The worker was a welder working on a Bayshore Freeway overpass when he leaned too far into the vat.

 

On May 17, 1962 Ralph Ratliff represented Redwood City at the annual hearing conducted by the California State Chamber of Commerce. The Issues were the completion of the Five Points Overpass, the Junipero Serra Freeway (280), the Skyline Freeway and the Bayfront Freeway (101). There was also resolution offered by the City of Half Moon Bay seeking to continue the so-called San Bruno Freeway (380) to Half Moon Bay.

 

I’m not sure where my uncle stood on the last issue. This was just a couple of years after the City of Pacifica was formed to keep from being annexed by San Bruno, and a couple of years before Pacifica tried to annex all of the communities of the coastside down to Princeton By the Sea. Development was popular then. There was even a plan to make Montara into another Linda Mar.

 

Unfortunately, his election to the new post came shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer. His death in March 1963 was front-page news in the Times Tribune on March 18, 1963:

 

Ralph H. Ratliff, whose Peninsula Ambulance Service has provided Redwood City’s emergency transportation for 19 years died Saturday afternoon after a long battle with cancer. Mr. Ratliff, 59, came here in 1939 to establish a garage and towing service at the corner of Main Street and Old Bayshore.

In 1944, Mickey Collins, then chief of police, told Mr. Ratliff that the community should be provided with some kind of ambulance service. Mr. Ratliff decided to go into the business. He began with one vehicle and today, with headquarters at 1260 Marshall St., has five.

 

A native of Springfield [actually Tallula], Ill., Mr. Ratliff came to Redwood City from San Francisco. He has been identified with many civic activities throughout the years, notably as the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Highway and Traffic Committee. It was for this group that he campaigned for the widening of Jefferson Ave. and Woodside Rd., the extension of Edgewood Rd. to Half Moon Bay, and many of the local provisions of the local in the proposed city-county highway bond issue.

 

Mr. Ratliff also was a member of the Redwood City Exchange club, Redwood City Elks lodge, Modern Woodmen of the World and United Commercial Travelers. He was a charter member and past president of the California Ambulance Association, and was awarded a 20-year pin as a first aide instructor by the Red Cross.

 

Mr. Ratliff’s family will continue to run the ambulance firm.

 

Survivors include his widow, Irene, at the family home, 1007 Katherine St.; Sons Ralph J., Menlo Park and Harold K., Redwood City; a daughter; Mrs. Virginia Collins, Los Altos and a son by a previous marriage, Ralph H. Ratliff Jr. of Los Angeles. A Sister, Mrs. Mardel Womer [My mother’s married name with her second husband] resides in Redwood City. There are 15 grandchildren.

 

Private Funeral Services were held at Lyng & Tinney Funeral Home, 717 Jefferson Ave. Mr. Ratliff willed his body to Stanford Medical School for research.

 

The family prefers contributions to the American Cancer Society, 1517 South B St., San Mateo.

 

And in another article on March 25, 1963:

Ralph H. Ratliff, A Valuable Citizen

It was no longer news to his friends when it appeared in Monday’s paper that Ralph H. Ratliff had succumbed. Mr. Ratliff had been stricken with cancer more than a year ago, and hope for survival disappeared long ago but Mr. Ratliff refused to give up.

He knew that there were many jobs to be done, and he was going to do his best to get some results while he was still able to do so.

 

Mr. Ratliff was one of the developers of an excellent ambulance for Peninsulans. He wasn’t merely satisfied to transport to the hospital; he became an expert in first aide and his careful handling of patients was in many cases the difference between life and death.

 

Mr. Ratliff didn’t confine himself to matter involving his own profession. He was civic minded, and in this too he put in his best effort. Hi thorough study of Redwood City’s street and traffic problems, made at the request of the Chamber of Commerce, has been used as a model by both city and county governments in planning for the future.

 

Much of his best work came after he knew that he would never be able to shake the cancer that was spreading through his body.

 

This effort and enthusiasm ….the will to keep working for the public’s benefit even while knowing that he would reap none of the benefits…made Ralph H. Ratliff one of Redwood City’s most valuable citizens.

 

The entire community shares with his family this deep loss.

 

The family tried to continue the business together, but as often happens in these situations, there was disagreement about how the business should be run, so Harold Ratliff established a competing service, California Ambulance.

 

Harold Ratliff in the California Ambulance Office about 1970

 

California Ambulance Service was moderately successful but the move by San Mateo County to station emergency medical responders to fire stations left only non-emergency transport work to private ambulance companies. Eventually, both Peninsula Ambulance Service and California Ambulance Service merged with Mercy Ambulance Service in Daly City to form Mercy-Peninsula Ambulance.

 

Irene Ratliff retired and moved to Oregon to be close to her children. Harold worked at Raychem in Menlo Park until his death on May 06, 1985. He died of a heart attack behind the wheel of his car on El Camino Real.

 

Times Tribune May 08, 1985

Harold Ratliff, 59, Known as “Ratliff the Magician” to scores of Peninsula children and church groups, and a resident of Redwood City for over 40 years, died Monday in Mills Memorial Hospital after a sudden illness. He was a native of San Francisco.

 

He was a Navy veteran of World War II and served in the Pacific. In recent years he worked for Raychem in Menlo Park.

 

As a magician he performed for churches, children’s parties and many organizations.

 

Survivors include his wife Carol, his wife of 37 years; his sons, Kenneth of San Jose and Donald and Robert of Oregon; daughters Donna Knerr of Texas, Sandra Ebaugh of Mountain View and Barbara Ferriera of Florida; brothers Ralph J. of Oregon and Ralph H. of Los Angeles; a sister, Virginia Collins of Pasadena; his mother, Irene Ratliff of Oregon.

 

Private services have been held with internment in Golden Gate National Cemetery at San Bruno under direction of the Redwood Chapel, Redwood City. The family suggests memorial gifts to the American Heart Association.

 

© Copyright 1996-2010 SFgenealogy. All rights reserved.

This is our lovely little boy Adam who is just 6 years old

 

At only 3 weeks old Adam started having seizures and stopped breathing, he was rushed to hospital placed on seizure medication and antibiotics (they thought Adam had meningitis). We were told he had a virus and was kept in a High Dependency Unit in our local hospital for a week still and kept on seizure medication for a little while.

 

From then on we realised Adam was slipping behind all of his milestones but we did not know why. He was slow to crawl and very late walking, we were told he might never walk because of his apparent low muscle tone which made me just work harder with Adam to prove the medical profession wrong. Adam was then diagnosed with deafness and prescribed hearing aids.

 

At 2 ½ years old the seizures came back and Adam regressed. He lost the few words he had mastered and did not wish to interact with anyone, slowly withdrawing from us all. Eye contact was lost and some really challenging behaviours emerged. Adam had no way to communicate except by yelping and screaming to get attention. This was our lowest point we wanted to help Adam but he saw everything we did as a demand and it sent him into a frenzy. We hardly ever left the house.

 

At 3 years old we approached an Autism consultant and Adam was diagnosed with secondary Autism? We needed this diagnosis to secure a home education program and using a behavioural analyst we trained a team of 4 therapists to teach Adam to communicate, (we use special augmentative devices), based on Adams motivation to request items he loves and rewarding him. We worked on Adams physiotherapy and occupational therapy targets at home and introduced swimming and horse riding.

 

All was going well until Adams sleep needs increased and increased, he was needing 18 to 20 hours sleep per day. We kept being told it was due to Adams low muscle tone as moving about required much more energy. We kept data and wrote to every Dr who had ever treated Adam. He stopped eating and after much nagging was taken into hospital for tests…, we were told ‘don’t worry we can always put a tube in to feed Adam if it should get worse’ ...We persevered and turned this around by pairing up eating with something Adam loved (TV) and eventually he started to drink goats milk and then got the strength to eat a little more and a little more each day (Eating to date is great but it has been a long struggle). But Adam still needed huge amounts of sleep.

 

A sleep study was at last performed and from this we got a referral to Great Ormond Street were Adam has been diagnosed with Central sleep Apnoea, he stops breathing during sleep and his brain doesn’t kick in to tell him to breath again. His oxygen saturations go as low as 51% He has also just had a 24 hour EEG and they have found that Adam has clinical and sub-clinical seizures throughout his sleep. During one of the seizures Adam stopped breathing so they will be doing a combined sleep study and EEG very soon to investigate how often this occurs.

 

At Christmas time we received a diagnosis at last, it came out of the blue and was a huge shock. Adam has a very rare Chromosome disorder. It is called Idic 15 but is rare in the fact that Adam has four extra copies instead of two and that it is in a mosaic form meaning it is not in every cell (which is why it took so long to diagnose). Adam is the 7th child in the world to be diagnosed with this disorder.

 

Looking now at this diagnosis it covers every one of Adams symptoms (We have included a leaflet on the disorder). What is most worrying is that there have been cases of sudden death with this disorder possibly linked to seizure activity and sleep apnoea which we know Adam has.

 

We have attached the physicians advisory about sudden death in children like Adam (this really makes us try to pack as much into Adams life as possible and give him the best chances to enjoy as many experiences as we can)

 

So whilst we are waiting for the Doctors to get their act together we decided to embark on The Scotson Therapy at the Advance Centre in East Grinstead. We learn exercises to increase the blood flow around Adams diaphragm thus encouraging the oxygenation of the undeveloped muscles that support Adams diaphragm. He also has Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy each time we go and the difference is amazing. Adam is so much calmer, his posture is better, he is learning and making decisions, he is developing a cheeky sense of humour and his energy levels are increasing and so is his enjoyment of life. We visit 3 times a year when the exercises are changed according to Adams progress. However we have now run out of funding. Because we run a home program and only part of it is covered by our Local Education Authority we are already subsidising this with our own money. Steve, my husband, is self employed and works away but has had to stay home a lot because of hospital appointments for Adam, (and myself as I sadly have a chronic illness). This is hitting us hard and we just don’t know how we are going to raise the funds to attend the Advance Scotson Centre again in a couple of months. We are ebaying like crazy, we would love to do a fundraiser but looking after Adams needs takes up all our energy along with running a home program and all the admin it involves. It would be so easy to have sent Adam to school but they could not do what we have achieved to date and I feel that Adam would not be where he is today if we had taken the easy option. Adam is a joy and everybody who meets Adam falls in love with him. He still has severe learning difficulties and his progress might be slow but it is forward moving and we are so very proud of him. He is trying to babble again, (we have introduced a Talk Tools program after seeing an American Speech therapist), and we work on facial muscles, lip closure, chewing, developing his back bite in order to eat solid food by using special exercises.

 

We would love support and help to keep all our therapies going but mainly the Scotson therapy which costs us £700 for the training and hyperbaric oxygen therapy and roughly £500 for accommodation whilst we are there (can vary depending on season).

 

Ideally it is our dream to purchase a hyperbaric Oxygen chamber of our own so that Adam can have extra oxygen under pressure everyday but our lottery numbers haven’t come up yet to give us the £25K needed but we can dream …..

 

Georgina and Steve Bancroft

  

Toronto, Canada. Medigas delivering medical supplies to a private residence during the #Covid-19 pandemic. Note a discarded vinyl glove from a passerby left in the gutter and beneath the wheel. © Linda Dawn Hammond/ IndyFoto March 26, 2020

Fotocredit: © VIIVAMAYR

VIVAMAYR LONDON CLINIC

Harley Street

 

Leading luxury medical health centre VIVAMAYR has opened its first ever location outside of Austria on London’s prestigious Harley Street.

 

In the heart of fast-paced cosmopolitan London, Harley Street is the international destination for private medical excellence and the location of the new VIVAMAYR London clinic. A stone’s throw from Oxford Street in fashionable Marylebone, VIVAMAYR has made its home in London at 15 Harley Street, an oasis of calm and contemplation overlooking a beautiful private courtyard.

 

The VIVAMAYR approach, which combines precious natural therapies with state-of-the-art medical diagnostics and treatments, is no longer the preserve of guests at the VIVAMAYR resorts in Maria Worth and Altaussee, or the day clinic in Vienna.

 

VIVAMAYR London provides efficient access to the VIVAMAYR senior medical team - Dr Harald Stossier, Dr Sepp Fegerl, Dr Christine Stossier and Dr Doris Schuscha - who will each have a weekly residency at the clinic. Primarily offering diagnostic consultations, patients will learn how a bespoke VIVAMAYR programme can help transform their health and wellbeing. There will also be a curated selection of therapies on offer, including diagnostic blood tests, intravenous infusions, oxygen therapy, manual abdominal treatment, applied kinesiology and stress testing.

 

In the spa hotel SMETANA-VYŠEHRAD we provide the following treatments :

Pearl, Carbonic, Galvanic and Hydroxeur bath

Classic, Reflex and Underwater massages

Sauna

Oxygenotherapy or oxygen therapy

Curaplus and Kryotherapy or thermo-gel compresses

Acupuncture

Peloid compress

Instrumental lymphatic drainage

Bionic lamp – polarized light

In the human organism the Airnergy energy guarantees a measurable improvement in oxygen utilisation, an optimisation of many body functions and even a better sleep. With no additional oxygen and no foreign substances.

The North Alabama ENT Associates pose in the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy lab in the Franklin Tower at Huntsville Hosptial.

 

Brocato, Gerard D., MD

Castillo, Jasper V., MD

Martin, Richard G., MD

McCary, William S., MD

McFadden, Michael Dean, MD

McFeely, William J., MD

Teachey, Herman M., MD

[#Beginning of Shooting Data Section]

Nikon D1X

Focal Length: 70mm

Optimize Image:

Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB)

Long Exposure NR:

2006/08/02 18:46:58.4

Exposure Mode: Manual

White Balance: Preset 1

Tone Comp.: Normal

Compressed RAW (12-bit)

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

AF Mode: AF-S

Hue Adjustment: -9°

Image Size: Large (3008 x 1960)

1/125 sec - F/11

Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached

Saturation:

Color

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sharpening: Normal

Lens: 28-70mm F/2.8 D

Sensitivity: ISO 125

Image Comment:

[#End of Shooting Data Section]

It was 34 Degrees when we headed to Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy treatments in Kingwood, TX, for Larry with the sun shining it quickly went up to 44 degrees as I sat at a park nearby waiting for Larry's almost three hour session to be over watching the birds of the morning on the San Jacinto River and it's adjacent lakes. This is a Double-crested Cormorant which was diving for breakfast and my entertainment. Loved how the water balled up on his back when he came up out of the water. To better see you might try looking at this in a larger size if you have time... there were other birds there to keep me company and came closer and closer as I sat there very quietly savoring the beauty of the morning in the warm sunshine!!! Everyone that has spent anytime around water in South and East Texas has seen a cormorant. Cormorants are fish eaters and therefore are a topic of discussion among fisheries biologists, lake and pond owners, anglers, and fish farmers. Cormorants are found pretty much worldwide where there is ice-free water. There are two species of cormorants found in Texas – double-crested cormorants and neotropic cormorants, with the double-crested being the most common species.

 

In May 2003, Chandler Regional Medical Center’s Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Oxygen Center, opened its doors to treat various wounds that require specialized care. Since then, the Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Oxygen Center has become an integral part of Chandler Regional’s services.

 

"We are very proud to have been able to serve the community for ten years now," said Brian Paterick, M.D., medical director of the Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Oxygen Center. "Our facility has grown so much, and we are able to treat and heal our patients with the best quality care possible. I am looking forward to seeing what we will be capable of doing in our next ten years, and how we will grow as a facility, hospital and community."

 

The center’s staff is able to treat a variety of non-healing wounds and injuries including:

 

•Any wound not healed within 30 days

•Diabetic ulcers

•Failing grafts and flaps

•Gangrene

•Infections

•Pressure ulcers

•Radiation destruction

•Superficial wounds

•Surgical wounds

•Wounds on lower legs or feet

 

A multidisciplinary team of specialists develop an individualized, comprehensive treatment plan for each patient that may include:

 

•Bioengineering tissue substitutes

 

•Debridement – removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue

 

•Dressings and compression wraps

 

•Hyperbaric oxygen therapy – use of 100 percent oxygen delivered directly to wound site

 

•Platelet technologies

 

•Vacuum-assisted closure

 

By the Numbers

 

In its ten years, the center has increased its offerings in order to best serve the evolving needs of the community.

 

•Admissions: 7,643

 

•Outpatient visits: more than 73,000

 

•Total staff: 13

 

•Physicians on panel: 10 specializing in vascular surgery; plastic surgery; podiatry; family

medicine; internal medicine; and emergency medicine

 

Collaboration and Innovation

 

During the ten years the Wound Healing Center has been in operation, the center has undertaken a number of endeavors to continue to enrich what is known about treating various types of wounds.

 

Their collaborative efforts include:

 

•Using a specialized medical-grade honey product called Medihoney™ which has been approved by the FDA to treat chronic and acute wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers and pressure ulcers.

 

•Drawing attention to chronic radiation proctitis, a hidden complication that develops in some prostate cancer survivors after successful radiation therapy.

 

A Decade of Accolades

The Wound Healing Center has received ample recognition for their efforts in clinical care and wound treatment.

 

•Center of Distinction by Healogics, Inc. (2013): The center met key clinical indicators, including having a 92 percent patient satisfaction rate and a greater than 95 percent wound healing rate within 35 median days to heal, to receive this prestigious distinction.

 

•Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Facility Accreditation by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) (2005, 2008 and 2012): In 2012, the center received its third accreditation from the UHMS. Chandler Regional remains the only hospital in Arizona and one of 129 hospitals in the nation to receive this honor, which signifies the highest quality of hyperbaric medical care.

 

•Best Overall Wound Outcomes Award by National Healing Corporation (NHC) (2007, 2009 and 2010): The staff received recognition for achieving an above average healing rate of 93 percent of patient within four months and a reduced amputation rate of only one percent.

 

•Medical Director of the Year, Brian Paterick, M.D. by National Healing Corporation (2009)

 

•Best Regional Wound Outcomes Award by National Healing Corporation (NHC) (2006)

 

•Operating Excellence by National Healing Corporation (2005 and 2006)

 

To learn more about the Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Oxygen Center, please visit ChandlerRegional.org.

 

U.S. Naval Hospital. "Oxygen therapy." [Scene.] Saint Albans, New York

 

01/05/1965; Number 6; 654

 

Navy Medicine Historical Files Collection - Facilities series

09-5052-028

Print b&w 8X10

The North Alabama ENT Associates pose in the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy lab in the Franklin Tower at Huntsville Hosptial.

 

Brocato, Gerard D., MD

Castillo, Jasper V., MD

Martin, Richard G., MD

McCary, William S., MD

McFadden, Michael Dean, MD

McFeely, William J., MD

Teachey, Herman M., MD

[#Beginning of Shooting Data Section]

Nikon D1X

Focal Length: 70mm

Optimize Image:

Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB)

Long Exposure NR:

2006/08/02 18:46:12.2

Exposure Mode: Manual

White Balance: Preset 1

Tone Comp.: Normal

Compressed RAW (12-bit)

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

AF Mode: AF-S

Hue Adjustment: -9°

Image Size: Large (3008 x 1960)

1/125 sec - F/11

Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached

Saturation:

Color

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sharpening: Normal

Lens: 28-70mm F/2.8 D

Sensitivity: ISO 125

Image Comment:

[#End of Shooting Data Section]

www.macypan.com/hyperbaric-oxygen-chamber-for-sports/

 

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is more and more favored by famous athletes all over the world, and they are also a necessary for some sports gyms for helping people recovery faster from hard training.

 

How Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Works for Athletes?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy works by boosting the human body’s remarkable capabilities of self-healing. Oxygen is fuel for the cells within the body. It is essential not only for our survival but for a wide range of complex processes to be carried out, such as repairing damaged tissues. Hyperbaric chamber supplier provides the body with ample fuel (oxygen) so that it can maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of these processes.

 

HBOT doesn’t require any recovery time, which makes it very appealing to athletes and anyone with a busy schedule. Treatment sessions last between 60 to 120 minutes and patients typically look forward to this therapy as a time to relax and unwind, during hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment sessions, patients sit or lie down within a hyperbaric chamber that is pressurized. During this time, patients are able to read, listen to music, work on a laptop, watch a movie, or take a nap. They can return to their normal activities immediately afterward, which means athletes can enjoy an HBOT session before a big game.

 

Also, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy can help athletes from:

 

Increases mental focus

 

Increases serotonin levels

 

Improves blood circulation

 

Increases energy levels

 

Increases Collagen Production

 

Accelerates jet lag recovery

 

Reduces lactic acid

 

Hyperbaric chamber muscle recovery can reduce muscle fatigue and stretch injury

 

Reduces Inflammation & Pain

 

Reduces Susceptibility Towards Re-injuring Target Areas

 

Heal soft tissues, ligaments and fractures faster

 

Enhances Recovery from Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) & Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injuries

 

Professional Athletes and Hyperbaric Chamber Sports Recovery

Some athletes prefer to have hyperbaric oxygen therapy to improve their abilities and level of performance, hyperbaric chamber for sports injuries recovery of physical fitness quickly after intense training and workouts have become more and more common in sports world.

 

*LeBron James

 

LeBron James, or “King James” as he is adoringly referred to by his fans, is one of the most accomplished basketball players of all time. Now in his 30s, he is showing no signs of slowing down and his business manager, Maverick Carter, attributes a large part of LeBron’s success to his focus on physical maintenance and recovery.

 

*Michael Phelps

 

While preparing for the 2012 Olympics in London, Michael Phelps started sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber as part of his recovery routine. Today, Phelps is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, surpassing the previous record holder (Soviet artistic gymnast Larisa Latynina) by 10 medals, but back in 2012, he was looking for ways to boost his recovery after training sessions.

 

*Joe Namath

 

Of all the athletes who use hyperbaric therapy, Joe Namath is one of the most outspoken. Joe Namath, nicknamed “Broadway Joe” was a Quarterback for the NY Jets. Namath’s experience is unique in that he started HBOT to address his symptoms of cognitive decline after multiple concussions. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Joe Namath said he “had a minimum of 5” concussions and that he had watched fellow football players slowly lose their memory. This prompted him to find out more about what was going on inside his brain.

 

*Rafael Soriano

 

Rafael Soriano is another athlete who started using hyperbaric oxygen therapy in his 30s and enjoyed a notably long career in the world of professional sports. As MLB pitcher who played for 5 different MLB teams, Soriano learned to perfect his recovery regimen over his 13-year career, adding HBOT in 2012.

 

* Rashad Jennings

 

Rashad Jennings is another former NFL player to incorporate hyperbaric oxygen therapy into his recovery regimen. During his time playing for the New York Giants, Jennings told the New York Post, “I use it to rejuvenate and energize… even on a cognitive level, it helps out.” Jennings scored 12 touchdowns in his time with the Giants and rushed a total of 2,095 yards.Interested in learning more about hyperbaric oxygen therapy? The clinicians at Aspire Regenerative can suggest a recovery plan utilizing HBOT and other innovative therapies to help you improve physical and cognitive performance. Aspire Regenerative can help set you on the right path to attain your personal health and wellness goals.

 

Some of athletes that cooperate with MACY-PAN:

 

Zhang Weili

Chinese professional mixed martial arts athlete, Asia's first UFC world champion.

 

She said that she often lay in the oxygen cabin after high-intensity training and rested for 1 to 1.5 hours in order to achieve the effect of rapid recovery of physical fitness.

 

Serbian Professional Judoka

The first ever Judo world champion from Serbia, one of the Youngest champion in Judo.

 

He said that our hyperbaric oxygen chamber help him to improve his skills and speedy recovery from hard training. Also recommend our chambers can make a fantastic health results for sportsman, but also for a normal people.

   

I am not on Flickr or Facebook as faithfully as I have been in the past because Larry is going through Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy treatments and has had a bevy of doctors visits with lots of tests and procedures being done... They are trying desperately to save Larry's left leg from the knee down... his circulation is so bad that the healing needed is not going as well as hoped. We have had some rough days and nights lately but I still believe in miracles and that God is in the healing business... He is the Great Physician and nothing is impossible for Him... if it is His will... we know He is control of every aspect of our lives and we thank Him for all He has brought us through and all He has done for us... we are truly grateful but now we need His healing hand on Larry so his foot will heal and he won't have more surgery. Please keep covering us in prayer and we thank you for so much for your concern and support... we will not give up the fight and prayer is what keeps us going... we both are so appreciative... thank you... hugs!!!

A special song to us: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZZGDNEOp4g

 

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able

to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort

with which we ourselves are comforted of God.

(2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

The North Alabama ENT Associates pose in the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy lab in the Franklin Tower at Huntsville Hosptial.

 

Brocato, Gerard D., MD

Castillo, Jasper V., MD

Martin, Richard G., MD

McCary, William S., MD

McFadden, Michael Dean, MD

McFeely, William J., MD

Teachey, Herman M., MD

[#Beginning of Shooting Data Section]

Nikon D1X

Focal Length: 17mm

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Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB)

Long Exposure NR:

2006/08/02 18:05:30.5

Exposure Mode: Manual

White Balance: Preset 1

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Hue Adjustment: -9°

Image Size: Large (3008 x 1960)

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Lens: 17-35mm F/2.8 D

Sensitivity: ISO 125

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The North Alabama ENT Associates pose in the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy lab in the Franklin Tower at Huntsville Hosptial.

 

Brocato, Gerard D., MD

Castillo, Jasper V., MD

Martin, Richard G., MD

McCary, William S., MD

McFadden, Michael Dean, MD

McFeely, William J., MD

Teachey, Herman M., MD

[#Beginning of Shooting Data Section]

Nikon D1X

Focal Length: 70mm

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2006/08/02 18:45:37.3

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Hue Adjustment: -9°

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1/125 sec - F/11

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They trundle down the abandoned corridors crying "Oxygenate! Oxygenate!"... (sorry, Doctor Who fans, lol)

 

My brother Mike and I went on an urbex trip together to an asylum I've visited before. I needed a certain shot I'd done before but as something I could print larger for the music venue. Getting into and out of this place is part of the adventure and we had a blast. Mike has never come with me on one of these before.

 

Please like my Facebook Artists page: entropic remnants photography on facebook Also, please visit the Entropic Remnants website, my Entropic Remnants blog, and my Entropic Remnants YouTube page -- THANKS!

At the same time carbon dioxide and lactate production was reduced by 7 per cent – an indication that the respiratory air therapy optimises aerobic metabolism.

There is a wellness centre situated in the hotel that offers the following services: massage, mineral bath, hydroxeur, oxygen therapy, dry carbon baths, paraffin packs, mud packs, gas injection, sauna.

The European Union and UNDP donate 60 specialized oxygen concentrators to medical facilities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The oxygen concentrators will be used in hospitals for oxygen therapy to treat patients with respiratory disorders and alleviate COVID-19 symptoms.

 

For more information, please see: www.ua.undp.org/content/ukraine/en/home/presscenter/press...

 

Photo credit: Oleksandr Simonenko / UNDP in Ukraine

The North Alabama ENT Associates pose in the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy lab in the Franklin Tower at Huntsville Hosptial.

 

Brocato, Gerard D., MD

Castillo, Jasper V., MD

Martin, Richard G., MD

McCary, William S., MD

McFadden, Michael Dean, MD

McFeely, William J., MD

Teachey, Herman M., MD

[#Beginning of Shooting Data Section]

Nikon D1X

Focal Length: 62mm

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Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB)

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2006/08/02 18:48:56.5

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Compressed RAW (12-bit)

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Hue Adjustment: -9°

Image Size: Large (3008 x 1960)

1/125 sec - F/11

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Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sharpening: Normal

Lens: 28-70mm F/2.8 D

Sensitivity: ISO 125

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[#End of Shooting Data Section]

This is our lovely little boy Adam who is just 6 years old

 

At only 3 weeks old Adam started having seizures and stopped breathing, he was rushed to hospital placed on seizure medication and antibiotics (they thought Adam had meningitis). We were told he had a virus and was kept in a High Dependency Unit in our local hospital for a week still and kept on seizure medication for a little while.

 

From then on we realised Adam was slipping behind all of his milestones but we did not know why. He was slow to crawl and very late walking, we were told he might never walk because of his apparent low muscle tone which made me just work harder with Adam to prove the medical profession wrong. Adam was then diagnosed with deafness and prescribed hearing aids.

 

At 2 ½ years old the seizures came back and Adam regressed. He lost the few words he had mastered and did not wish to interact with anyone, slowly withdrawing from us all. Eye contact was lost and some really challenging behaviours emerged. Adam had no way to communicate except by yelping and screaming to get attention. This was our lowest point we wanted to help Adam but he saw everything we did as a demand and it sent him into a frenzy. We hardly ever left the house.

 

At 3 years old we approached an Autism consultant and Adam was diagnosed with secondary Autism? We needed this diagnosis to secure a home education program and using a behavioural analyst we trained a team of 4 therapists to teach Adam to communicate, (we use special augmentative devices), based on Adams motivation to request items he loves and rewarding him. We worked on Adams physiotherapy and occupational therapy targets at home and introduced swimming and horse riding.

 

All was going well until Adams sleep needs increased and increased, he was needing 18 to 20 hours sleep per day. We kept being told it was due to Adams low muscle tone as moving about required much more energy. We kept data and wrote to every Dr who had ever treated Adam. He stopped eating and after much nagging was taken into hospital for tests…, we were told ‘don’t worry we can always put a tube in to feed Adam if it should get worse’ ...We persevered and turned this around by pairing up eating with something Adam loved (TV) and eventually he started to drink goats milk and then got the strength to eat a little more and a little more each day (Eating to date is great but it has been a long struggle). But Adam still needed huge amounts of sleep.

 

A sleep study was at last performed and from this we got a referral to Great Ormond Street were Adam has been diagnosed with Central sleep Apnoea, he stops breathing during sleep and his brain doesn’t kick in to tell him to breath again. His oxygen saturations go as low as 51% He has also just had a 24 hour EEG and they have found that Adam has clinical and sub-clinical seizures throughout his sleep. During one of the seizures Adam stopped breathing so they will be doing a combined sleep study and EEG very soon to investigate how often this occurs.

 

At Christmas time we received a diagnosis at last, it came out of the blue and was a huge shock. Adam has a very rare Chromosome disorder. It is called Idic 15 but is rare in the fact that Adam has four extra copies instead of two and that it is in a mosaic form meaning it is not in every cell (which is why it took so long to diagnose). Adam is the 7th child in the world to be diagnosed with this disorder.

 

Looking now at this diagnosis it covers every one of Adams symptoms (We have included a leaflet on the disorder). What is most worrying is that there have been cases of sudden death with this disorder possibly linked to seizure activity and sleep apnoea which we know Adam has.

 

We have attached the physicians advisory about sudden death in children like Adam (this really makes us try to pack as much into Adams life as possible and give him the best chances to enjoy as many experiences as we can)

 

So whilst we are waiting for the Doctors to get their act together we decided to embark on The Scotson Therapy at the Advance Centre in East Grinstead. We learn exercises to increase the blood flow around Adams diaphragm thus encouraging the oxygenation of the undeveloped muscles that support Adams diaphragm. He also has Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy each time we go and the difference is amazing. Adam is so much calmer, his posture is better, he is learning and making decisions, he is developing a cheeky sense of humour and his energy levels are increasing and so is his enjoyment of life. We visit 3 times a year when the exercises are changed according to Adams progress. However we have now run out of funding. Because we run a home program and only part of it is covered by our Local Education Authority we are already subsidising this with our own money. Steve, my husband, is self employed and works away but has had to stay home a lot because of hospital appointments for Adam, (and myself as I sadly have a chronic illness). This is hitting us hard and we just don’t know how we are going to raise the funds to attend the Advance Scotson Centre again in a couple of months. We are ebaying like crazy, we would love to do a fundraiser but looking after Adams needs takes up all our energy along with running a home program and all the admin it involves. It would be so easy to have sent Adam to school but they could not do what we have achieved to date and I feel that Adam would not be where he is today if we had taken the easy option. Adam is a joy and everybody who meets Adam falls in love with him. He still has severe learning difficulties and his progress might be slow but it is forward moving and we are so very proud of him. He is trying to babble again, (we have introduced a Talk Tools program after seeing an American Speech therapist), and we work on facial muscles, lip closure, chewing, developing his back bite in order to eat solid food by using special exercises.

 

We would love support and help to keep all our therapies going but mainly the Scotson therapy which costs us £700 for the training and hyperbaric oxygen therapy and roughly £500 for accommodation whilst we are there (can vary depending on season).

 

Ideally it is our dream to purchase a hyperbaric Oxygen chamber of our own so that Adam can have extra oxygen under pressure everyday but our lottery numbers haven’t come up yet to give us the £25K needed but we can dream …..

 

Georgina and Steve Bancroft

  

The North Alabama ENT Associates pose in the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy lab in the Franklin Tower at Huntsville Hosptial.

 

Brocato, Gerard D., MD

Castillo, Jasper V., MD

Martin, Richard G., MD

McCary, William S., MD

McFadden, Michael Dean, MD

McFeely, William J., MD

Teachey, Herman M., MD

[#Beginning of Shooting Data Section]

Nikon D1X

Focal Length: 62mm

Optimize Image:

Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB)

Long Exposure NR:

2006/08/02 18:51:02.3

Exposure Mode: Manual

White Balance: Preset 1

Tone Comp.: Normal

Compressed RAW (12-bit)

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern

AF Mode: AF-S

Hue Adjustment: -9°

Image Size: Large (3008 x 1960)

1/125 sec - F/11

Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached

Saturation:

Color

Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Sharpening: Normal

Lens: 28-70mm F/2.8 D

Sensitivity: ISO 125

Image Comment:

[#End of Shooting Data Section]

Fotocredit: © VIIVAMAYR

VIVAMAYR LONDON CLINIC

Harley Street

 

Leading luxury medical health centre VIVAMAYR has opened its first ever location outside of Austria on London’s prestigious Harley Street.

 

In the heart of fast-paced cosmopolitan London, Harley Street is the international destination for private medical excellence and the location of the new VIVAMAYR London clinic. A stone’s throw from Oxford Street in fashionable Marylebone, VIVAMAYR has made its home in London at 15 Harley Street, an oasis of calm and contemplation overlooking a beautiful private courtyard.

 

The VIVAMAYR approach, which combines precious natural therapies with state-of-the-art medical diagnostics and treatments, is no longer the preserve of guests at the VIVAMAYR resorts in Maria Worth and Altaussee, or the day clinic in Vienna.

 

VIVAMAYR London provides efficient access to the VIVAMAYR senior medical team - Dr Harald Stossier, Dr Sepp Fegerl, Dr Christine Stossier and Dr Doris Schuscha - who will each have a weekly residency at the clinic. Primarily offering diagnostic consultations, patients will learn how a bespoke VIVAMAYR programme can help transform their health and wellbeing. There will also be a curated selection of therapies on offer, including diagnostic blood tests, intravenous infusions, oxygen therapy, manual abdominal treatment, applied kinesiology and stress testing.

 

My son Ryan, was born at 26+5 weighing 1lb 15oz (890g) when I developed

severe pre-eclampsia very suddenly and very severely. I was very ill and

I was told the day I found out I had pre-eclampsia that the baby would

need to be born asap or it could prove to be fatal to both me and the

baby.

 

I had an emergency caesarean on 04 April 2005 (my due date wasn't until

6 July 2005), and Ryan was born at 17.55pm.

 

Ryan had respiratory distress when he was born and needed to be

ventilated straight away. He was rushed off to NICU while I recovered

from the operation and pre-eclampsia. Ryan was very poorly at first and

we knew the first 48 hours were critical, but luckily he pulled through,

but not without some scary times. Ryan spent a total of 3,5 months (15

weeks and 1 day) in hospital, during which time he was ventilated for 4

weeks, had an operation to close a duct between his heart and lungs at

3,5 weeks old, had 12 blood transfusions, caught several life

threatening infections and needed constant oxygen therapy. In fact Ryan

didn't come off his oxygen until he was 7 months old as he had chronic

lung disease. We tended for Ryan on his oxygen at home for nearly 4

months.

 

Since his discharge from hospital nearly 2 years ago, Ryan has been back

in hospital several times with chest infections, and other various

things. He celebrated his 2nd birthday 2 months ago, and although he

looks very healthy now (apart from being very small for his age), he

still has some ongoing issues, and we still have 3 months check ups with

his paediatrician and on going checks with a dietician, eye doctor and

speech therapist. Only time will tell how much of an impact being born

so early will have on him, we probably won't know the full extent until

he starts school.

 

I really hope the government realises just how much having a premature

baby can impact your life. It is the most heartbreaking and distressing

thing I have ever experienced. Leaving your baby in behind in hospital

instead of taking them home like other mums can is so unnatural and I

cannot describe the pain seeing your baby fighting for its life, with

tubes and wires all around him. Pre-eclampsia is a common factor in

premature births, and more funding would go a long way into finding a

possible prevention for this too often fatal condition. I am 'lucky' in

that Ryan and I both survived this ordeal, but it could have turned out

so differently. I am so thankful still to have Ryan, but there are so

many others out there whose stories don't have such a happy ending.

 

I really hope this helps.

 

Good luck

Francesca