Scary History

THE RIDGES

1874-1993

Many hospitals started up at this time because many war vets going through post-tramatic stress. If you take a look at the Ridges cementary you'll notice a large number of nameless graves with vets plaques from the civil war.

When The Ridges opened it had 200 patients. In early 1900's it went from 200 to 2000 patients. This is when treatments became primitive and Dr. Freeman became known as Dr. Labotomy.

Some of the cruel "treatments" were:

• Shock therapy- shocked patients in water tanks or directly to temples.
• Labotomy (original)-had their skulls opened and would separate the neural passages midway through the brain.
• Labotomy (trans-orbital)- they would knock patient out by electric shock, then would insert an ice pick utensil through a tear duct and use a mallet to tap it through the proper depth of the brain.

Obviously, the labotomy treatments killed many.

In 1980 Reagan redefined the standard for mental illness. So in 1981 the hospital had fewer than 300 patients. The result was thousands of mentally ill were simply released and the homeless rate shot way up. Final patients left in 1993 to a smaller hopital. And 344 acres were transferred to Ohio University. Athens Post actually found out during a routine examination that Wilson Hall had been built on the exact same location as the original site of an earlier grave yard used by the institute.

http://www.forgottenoh.com/Ridges