Nurse Dorothy Tribus, seen here in 1992, kept a premature baby alive at the former Nesbitt Memorial Hospital during the flood. Tribus, who helped deliver more than 44,000 babies during her career, died in 2016 at the age of 84.
Times Leader file photo
Dorothy Tribus made sure every newborn Nesbitt obstetrics unit was safe
Editor’s Note: There are many people we wish we could have interviewed for this section. Dorothy Tribus would have been at the top of that list. In her honor and memory, we present this account of her heroic acts as reported by Geri Gibbons after Tribus passed away in 2016.
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KINGSTON — As waters from the Agnes Flood in 1972 threatened the Nesbitt Memorial Hospital, Dorothy Tribus made sure every newborn in the obstetrics unit was safe.
Several mothers and their newborns were able to be discharged from the hospital, but one in particular offered a bit of a challenge.
A recently born preemie still needed a great deal of medical care and could not be discharged. Flood waters or not, the baby needed to be kept warm and fed.
Rosalie Sawchak, a nurse at the time, remembers Tribus springing into action.
“Dorothy wrapped the preemie up in aluminum foil, and if I remember correctly, a helicopter transported them to College Misericordia where she worked tirelessly around the clock,” Sawchak said.
During the flood, Tribus, who was the OB/GYN supervisor at Nesbitt, stayed at the makeshift hospital at Misericordia more than 20 hours a day.
When the National Guard wanted to commandeer the room that held the fragile premature baby, Tribus would not have any of it, according to the Times Leader’s archives.
“You and your officers can go to hell,” Tribus informed the soldiers, barricading herself in the room with the baby, Michael Reilly.
“Many babies were born there during the flood,” Sawchak. “And Dorothy made sure they were all taken care of.”
Dorothy Tribus died in August 2016 at the age of 84.
Her legacy remains strong, however.
Scores of hospital employees remember the woman that they said was both “firm” and “fair.” With many of them crediting her with teaching them how to be good nurses.
“She wanted things done right,” Sawchak said. “But she was always willing to work with her staff.”
Sawchak said at one point one of the nurses had a baby and was no longer able to work full-time days.
“So she suggested that she work full-time nights,” she said. “And it worked out perfectly.”
Sawchak went on to be clinical director of obstetrics and pediatrics at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital for over 10 years.
Tribus had not forgotten the younger nurse.
“I got a card that said she knew that I was going to make something of myself,” she said. “She believed in me.”
June Supey said she worked under Tribus and came to know her as an excellent nurse who was extremely knowledgeable.
“You want to be proud of where you work, part of a team,” she said. “I felt like that when I was working under Dorothy.”
Supey remembers Tribus working with Dr. Bill Hazlett, who recently passed away, with building a client-centered environment and an atmosphere that precluded any backbiting.
“She had your back,” said Supey. “You could ask her anything, and she was never bothered by it. You had her full support.”
Supey remembers when she was doing everything she could to make a new mother comfortable and, despite conferring with Tribus, she just didn’t seem to be able to do it.
Another nurse came in and questioned Supey, when Tribus stepped right in.
“She told them I had tried this and that and the other thing,” she said. “She was willing to defend her nurses when she knew they were right.”
Marita Keating, who also nursed under Tribus, called her skills “magnificent.”
“She did some post graduate work and learned so much about obstetrics,” Keating said. “She was like a mother to us, no matter how old we were.”
Keating also credited Tribus for building a career in spite of the fact that she had five children of her own.
At a time when women did not often mix motherhood and careers, Tribus seemed to do it effortlessly.
Many remember her for her natural “no fuss” blonde hair that seemed to keep her “job ready” at any time. Over the course of her career she helped deliver more than 44,000 babies.
