Ida Ow, a native nurse from Corn Island that reached the highest rank in the Military Hospital
The following research was done by historian LuÃs Enrique Gálvez
Until 1970, the only woman in Central America who held the military rank of Lieutenant Colonel was Mrs. Ida Ow, a Nicaraguan born on Corn Island. She was a nurse at Managua Military Hospital and the wife of Samuel Genie, who at the end of the 70s was Minister of Finance and had previously served as Chief of State Security.
Mrs. Ida was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on May 27, 1970. She was born on June 4, l929 on Corn Island. She began her studies at the Moravian School in Bluefields and then went to the Baptist School in Managua. She then entered the National School of Nursing, graduating in 1948. Due to her qualifications and dedication to her studies, she received the distinction of being hired as an instructor and supervisor at the same academy. A year later, she became Head Nurse of the General Hospital's Boarding School. In 1950, she was granted a scholarship by the Ministry of Health for an 8-month course at the University of Puebla, Mexico, where she received training and specialization in pediatrics.
Upon her return to Nicaragua, she went back to work at the Military Hospital and took charge of the pediatric department, at the same time she received training at the same hospital to teach Nursing Assistants on behalf of the World Health Organization. Practically, she was the founder of the nursing assistant courses, which began to operate in 1952. The following year, in 1953, she married the then Captain Samuel Genie.
When she joined the Military Hospital, at that time there were still no military ranks for the nursing corps, until 1955 when Colonel Desotell, an American doctor, who was the Administrator and Director of the Hospital, recommended the militarization of the nursing corps.
It was in that year that she was given the rank of Captain. When the military regime was introduced for the Nursing Corps, Mrs. Ida was taken into account for her years of service and her superior preparation received at the National School of Nursing. Since that day, all nurses who graduated from nursing school and served in the Military Hospital entered with the rank of Sub-Lieutenant.
In 1960, Mrs. Ida Ow received a course in Hospital Administration at the Gorgas Hospital of the Panama Canal Zone, being named Director of Nursing of the Military Hospital upon her return, a position she held in 1970, and was President of the National Nurses Association of Nicaragua during the years 1957-58. The last course she received was at the Rodriguez Military Hospital in Puerto Rico in 1965.
During the administration of Dr. Rene Schick she was promoted to Major, then to Lieutenant Colonel in 1970, and in the following years she was promoted to General.
According to a chronicle written at the time by Captain Abel Toledo Hislop, who was the personal helicopter pilot of President Anastasio Somoza GarcÃa, he said he was in charge of taking Anastasio Somoza GarcÃa and six other people to the airport at 4:00 a.m. on July 17, 1979, including General Ida Ow and her husband, Samuel Genie, all of whom left the country in a Lear jet airplane.
Mrs. Ida Ow passed away in El Salvador in 2019, and her remains were transferred to Miami, where she was buried next to her husband. She was 90 years old.
