A Tennant Family

OBITUARY: GEORGE RALPH DOWNEY -- SEPTEMBER 11, 1961

George Downey, rancher here for 59 years, dies.

George R. Downey, a rancher in the Lander (Hudson) area for 59 years, died Monday evening at Bishop Randall Hospital. He would have been 80 years old in November.

Mr. Downey was taken ill Sunday at home and was taken to the hospital that night. He was operated upon, but his heart failed a few hours later, although the operation itself was successful. (The real story will follow this obituary)

Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at the Darr Funeral Home with Rev. Michael Scullion of the Catholic Church officiating. Burial will be in Mt. Hope Cemetery.

Mr. Downey was born in Morristown, New York Nov. 18, 1881. He went to school there and quit high school to work on a tugboat on the St. Lawrence River for a couple of years.

Wanting to come west, he moved to Hudson in February of 1362, with Dan Hudson, who was also from New York. Hudson was a sheep raiser, and after working for Hudson a couple of years, Mr. Downey brought an interest in Mr. Hudson's sheep company.

In 1910 he bought out the Tommy Dunne ranch in Lyons Valley. He lived there ever since, up until two years ago when he moved in with his son, Kenneth Downey, 433 North 3rd Street.

At one time, he and his partner, William Armogost, had six bands of sheep, with about 2,500 head of sheep to each band, making them one of the largest sheep outfits in this country.

Mr. Downey was one of the promoters and organizers of the building of the Christina Lake Dam to store water from Little Popo Agie River for use of Lyons Valley and Hudson ranchers.

He was also one of the promoters of Rural Electrification in this area, helping to organize the REA to serve farms and ranches.

He also raised trukeys until about 8 years ago.

He married Mary Boyle of Hudson in 1368, who survives him. They had one son, Kenneth. There are four grandchildren and great grandchildren surviving also.

William Kenneth Downey conveyed the following information to me, James Chapin Downey, about the death of George Ralph Downey on 11 September 1961. My family and I were living in Auburn, King, Washington, at the time.

Dad said that Gramp woke up during the night with a very bad side ache that had all of the symptoms of appendicitis. He said, "Bill, think you better take me to the hospital. There is something really wrong with my side." Dad took Gramp to the Lander hospital. The doctor diagnosed him with appendicitis and proceeded to operate as soon as he could be made ready for the operating room.

The Doc told Dad that he was surprised to see a healthy and pink appendix. But he took it out anyway. Dad said he saw the healthy and pink appendix in a little jar right after the surgery.

The Doc went on to say that he began searching for other problems in his intestines. The Doc found that one intestine had been kinked so the waste material could not pass that point. The Doc straightened the intestine out so the waste could pass, but it was difficult (probably because it had not moved for a while and it had become dehydrated.)

The Doc said rather than take a chance, he would just remove the kinked area even though it was straighted out for normal use. He did not want a weak spot to refold and cause a blockage again. So he clamped off the intestine on each side of the kinked area and removed the kinked area. He did not remove the waste material from the bowel before cutting the intestine so the waste could move any place it wanted to after the operation.

Gramp was placed in the recovery room for about an hour or so when he woke in terrible pain and gasping for air. He was suffocating because of toxic materials from his colon coming back into the small intestine where the toxins entered the blood stream. The personnel at the hospital said it was a normal reaction and did nothing to help Gramp by giving him oxygen to breath or anything else to help him get his breath.

Dad said Gramp gasped for air for over 30 minutes in agonizing pain. Dad said he had not ever seen any one or any animal suffer more than Gramp did. Finally, Gramp expired all of his energy trying to stay alive and finally collapsed and died.

Dad then told me over the phone, "Now, if you have any intentions of sueing the Doc or hospital, I will put a stop to it right now." I said, "Dad, that was not even in my thought patterns. I am more concerned for Nana and you, because Gramp cannot be brought back to life with a court case."

The death certificate says Gramp died of a cardiac arrest. The real reason for his death was simply -- Doctor's Error!!! All the Doc had to do was to clean the intestines of waste material before sewing the two ends of the intestines together. He would have lived to 95 or 105 like his mother and other family memebers.

Gramp had been on George Hotchkiss' cabin replacing the roof just one week before his tummy ache. Gramp was a very strong and energetic man all of his life.

He did wear a hurnia belt for many years. This could have caused a kink in his intestine and again it may not have had a thing to do with the fold in the intestine.