Martin Couney

Martin Arthur Couney

• Birth Name: Michael Cohen

• Prussian

Martin A Couney was a Prussian medical entrepreneur, notable for his pioneering work in neonatal incubators and for providing professional medical care for premature infants at a time when they were considered hopeless. Couney cared for babies regardless of race or social class and did not charge their parents. In 1903, for example, it cost about 15 US dollars (about 405 today) a day to care for each baby. Couney received his funding through entrance fees at various exhibits he setup in well attend expositions and fairgrounds in Europe and America. - AsNotedIn

After two weeks, the people who are in charge of the finances came to my father and said, "How are you going to pay for this?" And my father wasn't sure how he was going to pay for it, because he just bought a house, and they had another little girl who was 3 years old. He also had his mother-in-law living with him. Honestly said, "I don't know how", but all of a sudden their pediatrician says, "I've got a way. I can take you to the New York World's Fair. My friend has set up their own incubator babies and we can take her there."Kathryn Ashe Meyer on why, as a new born, she left Cornell University's New York Hospital inside an incubator ambulance