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Kokua Line
June Watanabe
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Data sought on Tamura Hospital
Question: My brother was born in 1944 in Tamura Hospital in the Ewa/Waipahu area, according to his birth certificate. I am unable to find anything on the Internet regarding said hospital. Could you help find out where this hospital was or if it still exists?
Answer: We couldn't find anything about the hospital, either, and turned to Laura Gerwitz, reference librarian at the Mamiya Medical Heritage Center, for help.
She uncovered this bit of information in the biography of Dr. Thomas Henry Tamura: "Returning to the islands in 1923, Dr. Tamura settled at Honokaa, Hawaii, where he was in practice for seven years. In 1930, he came to Oahu and located at Waipahu, where he operated his own hospital at Waikele."
If anyone has any more information about the hospital, please call us at 529-4773, and we'll share it with other readers.
In the meantime, our search for information on Tamura Hospital led us to a great resource on the history of medicine in Hawaii: the Mamiya Medical Heritage Center.
The center is located in the Hawaii Medical Library, on the grounds of the Queen's Medical Center. It was established in 1999 by Dr. Richard Mamiya, one of Hawaii's noted heart surgeons.
According to its Web site -- hml.org/mmhc/mmhcabt.html -- the center "houses the archives, medical museum and special collections of the library, consisting of more than 4,000 volumes of rare and special collections books, more than 10,000 photographs, more than 200 medical instruments, and approximately 200 linear feet of records and personal papers."
Q: What is strep throat? How bad can it get?
A: For any medical-related questions, it's best to call your doctor for information and advice.
In very general terms, strep throat is a severe sore throat caused by a streptococcus bacterium and characterized by a lot of pain and difficulty in swallowing. There often is a whitish pus on the tonsils and sometimes a fever.
It can lead to more severe complications. Anyone can get it, but it mostly affects children and teenagers.
Strep throat is usually treated with antibiotics.
Mahalo
To Rich Robinson and his group who found my cell phone, which I accidentally dropped in the parking lot of Kam Drive-In after the University of Hawaii-Idaho football game. We were driving home when Rich called us on my wife's cell to say he found my phone. We hurriedly turned back to the parking lot, where Rich and his friends were waiting for us in the dark. We really appreciated all their efforts. It would have turned out to be a really bad night after such a wonderful football game. God bless Rich and his group. -- Lloyd, Pearl City
Auwe
To people who put out their bulky items any time they feel like it, instead of the night before the scheduled pickup. They make the neighborhood look like a slum. -- Betty
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