A Champion Nurse for Reedley

REEDLEY – It was a childhood moment when Melba Bergthold’s family doctor told her she would be a good nurse that got the idea of someday entering the profession churning in her mind.

“So that was my goal from the time I was a little girl,” Bergthold said.

She was born in Long Beach, Calif. in 1924 and grew up during the Great Depression in Fowler.  Despite the country’s serious economic state, the years went by pleasantly, with days of playing outside from morning to evening, and camping trips to Pismo Beach, making clam chowder from scratch.  Bergthold lived in a two-story home, where she had a playhouse upstairs that drew other young girls in her neighborhood.

“It didn’t take much to entertain us in those days because we didn’t have all the conveniences,” Bergthold said.

She went on to attend Fresno State for 3 years, and still planned on becoming a nurse.  She transferred to the University of California, San Francisco, chosen to attend there out of thousands of applicants.  Bergthold was a United States Cadet Nurse during World War II, and her service there allowed her to take classes at the San Francisco institution.  Through the experience her tuition, room and board, and uniform was all paid for.  She received a $20 a month stipend to purchase items such as lipstick and talcum powder.

“It was so wonderful, I am so grateful to the government,” Bergthold said.

She was cold and homesick at the university, and the students in the program would practice procedures on one another.  They would put tubes down their throats as well as give injections, as well as perform other duties.  After she achieved her bachelor’s of science degree in nursing in 1946 she planned on attending to attend Columbia University to get her master’s degree and teach nursing.  Those plans changed when she met a “handsome Marine” at a Reedley Christmas party.  The man was her future husband, Lynn Bergthold.

“It was kind of love at first sight,” Melba Bergthold said.

She became a registered nurse and began her professional nursing career in 1946, at what was known back then as Reedley Hospital.  Some of her duties included weighing babies, preparing patients for pelvic examinations, and conducting X-rays.  She also visited homes, giving injections and dressing wounds.  She and others often worked 12-hour days because of the shortage of doctors following the war.  Bergthold learned much about the nursing profession from the hospital’s administrator at the time, Edith Belknab.

“She was one of those people that was just so gracious, such a wonderful person, and such a wonderful nurse and administrator,” Bergthold said.

Bergthold was a member of the board of directors of Reedley Hospital, Inc. from 1958-1962, and successfully petitioned to form the Sierra-Kings Hospital District in 1962.  She was also the founder and first president, as well as a life member, of the Sierra-Kings Hospital Auxiliary, and a charter and former member of the Sierra-Kings Hospital Foundation board of directors.

Back in the early 1960s it was evident that a new hospital was needed.  Reedley Hospital was located on Dinuba and Reed, and it received so much traffic that beds spilled out into the hallway and X-ray room.  The draft map was placed up in the old hospital, and employees were encouraged to give their suggestions for the new hospital.  It was constructed in 1964, and began operations in 1965.

“We felt that we were moving into the Taj Mahal,” Bergthold said.

Bergthold said a nurse in a small hospital has many responsibilities, and does whatever needs to be done.  She praised the efforts of those who paved the way for nurses like her.

“I felt like I was standing on their shoulders, because they’re the ones who did the hard work,” she said.

Bergthold retired from the Sierra-Kings Hospital District in 1986, but still remained involved with the hospital.  She was appointed and re-elected several times to the board of trustees and at one time was chair.  She has the distinction of working under 12 different hospital administrators.

She retired from the board in 2012 to care for her husband, Lynn, who at one time was a Marine who fought in Iwo Jima was also a former councilman and mayor of Reedley.  He had been diagnosed with cardiopulmonary disease, and his wife cared for him in their own home.  He passed away in October 2003.

“Honey, I’m so glad I married a nurse,” he was known for saying.

Bergthold is well-known for her service to the hospital and the community of Reedley, and some of her accolades include being named Reedley Woman of the Year in 1970, Honorary Life Membership in Parent Teacher Association in 1972, Outstanding Community Citizen Award in 1975, the Better Life Award in 1985, Reedley Citizen of the Year in 1987 and Honored Woman of Good Shepherd Church.  She has a conference room at the hospital named after her with a plaque in her honor, and an annual award in her name, the Melba F. Bergthold Award for Excellence, was established in 2002 and is given to an outstanding hospital employee who is also community-minded.

Bergthold has been active in Good Shepherd Church for over 50 years, and still uses pens and paper to write friends letters.  Even so, she owns a laptop and a Kindle her children gave her, out of her love of reading.  In addition to her three grown sons, she also has grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She is still a supporter of the hospital, and in recent years when Adventist Health reached out to take over ownership and operations of it, she highly supported the action.  She said the hospital at the time was “flipping and floundering.”  It became Adventist Medical Center-Reedley in 2011, and is a 49-bed hospital.

“We’re hoping it will be the place people want to come,” Bergthold said.

Melba Bergthold is the Lifetime Achievement Award winner for the 2013 “Heroes in HealthCare” awards reception.

The “Heroes in HealthCare” awards reception is coming to the Skyroom Lounge in the Holiday Inn Fresno Downtown on Thursday, May 30.  Awards will be presented in the following categories:  Physician, Nurse, Healthcare Professional, Volunteer, Emergency Response, Innovation, and Dentist.  A special Lifetime Achievement Award will also be given.  Tickets are $55, and can be purchased at http://heroesinhealthcare.com/heroesinhealthcare.com/Tickets.html.