Major Margaret Peters: The Dawn of Atomic Medicine

Image of Atomic Bomb

“A nurse must know how to explain the treatment so patients and their families are reassured. Many patients are afraid they will be a risk to their families when discharged from the hospital. Maj. Peters told me one woman even refused treatment because she felt it might be dangerous to touch her baby afterwards.

“Working with research doctors at the school, Maj. Peters has helped figure out safe exposure limits for medical personnel. “I have to convince the nurses they don’t have to handle their patients with tongs or wear lead aprons,” she joked.

“Precautions are necessary, however, Maj. Peters emphasizes. In her own lab she wears a badge of dental film pinned to her white coat. When enough radioactivity is present the film becomes blackened just as it would by X-rays. She also wears a dose meter, which measures how much radioactivity she is exposed to.

“Major Peters was the only service-woman and the only nurse to observe the recent atomic experiments at Frenchman’s Flats, Nevada.”

Major Margaret Peters: The Dawn of Atomic Medicine