PARE, LOUIS-ALPHONSE (438 - ENGLISH)

PARE, LOUIS-ALPHONSE (438 - ENGLISH)

PARE, LOUIS ALPHONSE

Born in 1848 at Lachine PQ, Louis Alphonse Paré, became medical auxiliary helper for the Mounted Police of the North in 1887.  In November, 1898, while he was on duty at Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, his urgent  services at Tagish in the Yukon were needed. He left immediately and arrived at his destination on December 20.  The Tagish post had no doctor and many men had typhoid fever.  The most severe cases were sent to Bennett or to Skagway, Alaska.  Other sick people took the boat and headed south where they would be cared for.

During his first year at Tagish, Paré treated 274 cases in the new hospital.  He cared for the patients who had scurvy, typhoid fever and other physical and mental illnesses.  He amputated some frozen members of the body;  he did some autopsies, and he did all this over and above having  no control over the sanitary conditions.  He attempted to teach some prevention methods by insisting on the importance of adding fresh vegetables and fresh meat to the unceasingly drab meals composed of canned meat, bacon, and dehydrated potatoes.

Paré was hired as a doctor in 1904, and he practiced in Whitehorse until 1911, the year when he retired at the age of 63.  He died in 1918.  His loyal services and his devotion to his medical work have been remarked upon and remembered for ever since then.

Ref: Empreinte, vol 11, p 59-60.