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WOMEN IN
MEDICINE

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questing assistance with wounded soldiers.
As the only doctor in the group, Dr. Hopkins was asked to pro-
vide medical treatment, while the other women set up a canteen to
feed the soldiers. The patients were in transit after being evacuated
from field hospitals for further treatment at facilities outside the
war zone. At this stop-over point, Dr. Hopkins performed battle-
field medicine: re-bandaging wounds, irrigating the eyes of men
who had suffered gas burns, and keeping watch on shell-shocked
patients.
For the next two weeks, the women spent their days assisting the
wounded. But the nights offered no respite. The Germans had re-
sumed nightly air raids, and under a full moon when visibility was
better, attacks were all but guaranteed. Red Cross kept her busy well beyond that date, organizing post-war
“How I have learned to hate the moon,” Dr. Hopkins told the clinics and hospitals in Marseilles and Avignon. But the war was
Herald. The women quickly developed a nightly routine. After over, and the armies and the vast bureaucracy that supported them
falling asleep from exhaustion they were usually awakened by planes, gradually dismantled.
prompting them to put on their helmets and run to a nearby dugout. Dr. Hopkins returned to Dallas and busied herself with a wide
Dr. Hopkins was supposed to be performing refugee work for array of professional and civic commitments. In addition to resum-
the Red Cross. Now she was doing what she and other women ing her medical practice, she served on the faculty at Baylor Uni-
physicians had hoped for all along — serving on the front lines of versity College of Medicine (before it moved to Houston), and was
the war. a member of the Texas Medical Association and American Medical
Eventually, Dr. Hopkins was asked to travel with a group of Association.
wounded soldiers to ensure their safe arrival at a nearby hospital. In 1927 she married Howard E. Reitzel, who also served in
The journey started at 4 am with Dr. Hopkins, five aides, and 106 France with the 111th Division Corps of Engineers. In 1931 she
patients traveling down the Marne River by boat. Their only provi- cofounded the Lyceum Club of Dallas (an arts, literature, and social
sions: a box of bandages the French had left behind. To sterilize activism group for women only) and served as president of the Zeta
her hands, Dr. Hopkins used boiled water. Tau Alpha sorority as well as its umbrella organization, the National
The journey was arduous and nerve-wracking. When the group PanHellenic Congress.
finally reached its destination 17 hours later, Dr. Hopkins burst with As Dr. Hopkins transitioned to civilian medicine, “Dallas seemed
pride. “David might have slain his tens of thousands, but May Ag- a little tame” compared to her war experience, she told the Herald.
ness had brought through 106 injured men,” she later said of the A colleague of Dr. Hopkins’, however, fondly remembered she
experience. often made house calls in her large Buick with a revolver tucked
under the front seat.
Continued service Dr. Hopkins answered the call to serve and did so despite the
After her unscheduled duty with the U.S. Army ended, Dr. Hop- limitations imposed on women of her generation.
kins began her service in the Children’s Bureau in France. By no “I couldn’t have dreamed in my wildest dreams how wonderful
means was this work any easier. The agency screened roughly 600 Dallas has been to me and to all women physicians,” she said in her
children a day for possible infectious diseases and other medical Herald interview. “But now I know the doors are open. Many hos-
needs. Many of them arrived on convoys from German-occupied pitals and schools now want the woman physician. There are more
territories, released because they were too young to provide labor and more opportunities for us.”
in the agricultural or industrial sector.
By November 1918 an armistice was declared and fighting be- Special thanks to Robert Gunby, MD, and his wife Elizabeth for bringing
tween the Germans and Allies ceased. Dr. Hopkins’ work with the Dr. Hopkins to the attention of the TMA History of Medicine Committee.

Copyright 2018 Texas Medical Association. Used with permission.
24 San Antonio Medicine • November 2018