The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-09-22
ABOUT THAT YOUNG MOTHER.


--She Went To the Hospital With tn
BabY--The Baby Died--The Matr0l
Censured for the Manner of Recep
ton. and Makes Her DefenSe~~Th
Nurses ExOnerated--Dr. McGee' Jr.
Thought He Should Have Beer
Promptly SummOned--Mr. TX. II
Battle Tells the Result of the Meet
ing of Investigation Yesterday--Th'
Mayor Sends for the Woman to Care
for Her, She Sinks Ont of Sight, ant
the Incident is CIOsed--tO the W0Tlt
at Least.
The case of the young woman, Mis-
McCullers, whose baby died Thursday
night at Rex Hospital, was under con
sideration yesterday at a meeting OF the
Board of Directors of that institution.
All the Board we're present except Mr.
W. G. Upchurch, who lies ill at his
home.
Miss NcCullers had presented herself
at the hospital Thursday with her baby
and there had been some hitch about he1
reception, bu finally she was entered
and the baby died that night. There
| followed considerable feeling, it seems,
specially on the part of DR.. james w.
MCGEE, Jr., who thought the treatment
of the woman had been inhuman. There
| resulted, of course, mixture Of matters,
an enquiry into which Was the object OF
the meeti 6 yesterday.
Mr.. K IL. Battle, enc of the members
of the Board, was seen after the meet
ing by News AND OBSERVER reporter,
land" said he, 1.-The matter has been
exaggerated; the young woman has been
living in Harnett and Durham counties
and it is doubtful whether she is
one of those to whom the charity
applies that was provided by
John Rex in his will, which made
provision for the INDECENT sick Of the
the city of Raleigh, The young
woman first appeared at the hos
pital in the morning near 10 o'clock,
without any order for admission by any
physician or from the mayor who has
the right under a recent contract with
the trustees to give admission to any
patient in case Of emergency. One OF
the physicians, seeing her at the hos
pital, gave her prescription which was
filled by the order of the mayor on
application by the woman at
his office The mayor about two
o'clock gave an order for the admission
at the hospital of the child with liberty
to her to look after it, and sent her down
in a carriage. She arrived while the
matron was giving dinner to the servants,
and the woman was told to 60 into the
hall upstairs. The female charity ward
was then entirely full, every bed being oc-
cupied. Two physicians who were looking
after their patients, CDR. Goodwin and
young DR.. Royster) gave recommendation
for the treatment of the child Temporal
rily The head nurse and the other
regular nurse both assisted in giving
this treatment, but the mother saying
nothing about the medicine she had
from the prescription in the morn
ing, the first medicine was not given.
DR.. Niece, Jr., one Of the visiting staff
for this month, was, under the regula-
tons, the proper physician to be sum
moned to this patient, but this was de-
layed, because the child was taken
with commissions about the time the
head-nurse first saw 1t, and she did not
think the child would survive until the
physician could get there. Being an ex-
perienced nurse, she looked after it her
self, until the CONFUSION was over, DR..
MCGEE was not aware of this attention
given to the child by tho head nurse,
and thought, as was doubtless the case,
that lie should have been summoned at
once, as the child was to be his patient.
The matter WAS investigated
this morning, all being present except
Mr.. Upchurch, also Doctors Rem and
MCGEE and Mayor Russ and the
young woman. The nurses were
exonerated from all blame. The ma
iron was thought to be deserving of
some censure In the way the patient was
received. Her defence was that she did
all she could for the child in the absence
OF instructions as to where to put it, the
charity ward being entirely full. AS
soon as she got instructions from mem
Der of the Board, she had private room
prepared for the child, and it received all
due attention until its death that night
at H."
DR.. McGoe was seen later, and insist
ed that he should have been sent for
promptly saying, moreover, that the hall
was not comfortable place for the
child, and that bed should have been
purchased somehow for it.
Meanwhile, the child is dead, the
Mayor sent for the young woman to give
her some care, and at b8st her desolate
figure win sink pathetically, for the
present, out of sight Of the passing
throng.