The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-20
PATIENT DRESSED OUTDOORS
CITY HOSPITAL NEIGHBORS EN-
CITED OVER TkIE INCIDENT
Women Saw, as They Thought, "a
Sick Man Turned Out in the
Rain Naked.

Sick Man Turned Out in the
Rain Naked.
According to the story Of two resi-
dents living adjacent to the city hos
pital, James Ryan, a patient at the in
stitution, was turned out in the rain
! Tuesday afternoon in nightgown and
| compelled to dress out of doors. Dr.
| Ancker says the story of the women
who claim to have witnessed the in
cident is incorrect and misleading.
The women say that between and
o'clock Tuesday afternoon they saw
bundle Of clothing thrown out Of a
| rear door at the hospital. A few min
utes later, they say, a man came out,
/ clad only in a nightgOwn, and dressed
! himself in the rain. The sight so shock
! ed the women they say, that they went
! to the hospital and asked the ward
| master what was the meaning Of the
! affair The latter told them. say the
! women, that the mans clothing was
| full Of vermin and that he would not
! longer be allowed to remain at the in
stitutiOn. The women say they then
| Intercepted the patient and learned
that his name was James Ryan. He
told them, according to their story,
that he was in the last stages Of con-
sumption and that he had been thrown
out Of the hospital without friends or
a place Of shelter
In addition to the charges made by
the women in the Ryan case, one Of
them says that last spring a patient
jumped out Of one Of the hospital win
dOws and killed himself
To a reporter for The Globe DR..
Ancker said last evening that the
stories told by the women reflected I'M
! justly on the hospital, inasmuch as
they were incorrect and did not recite
the facts in the case. DR.. Ancker
| said he had personally ordered Ryan's
! discharge from the hospital and that
the man had dressed himself outside OF
his own accord. Said Dr. Ancker:
Ryan was brought here Sunday
about supper time. He was found by
the police in the rear of a saloon on
st. Peter street. The history sheet
shows that the odOr Of LIQUOR was about
| him a the time. RYAN claimed to have
lived in st. Paul fifteen years. From
the clinical history sheet [ found that
Ryan's case was diagnosed as acute
alcoholism and consumption. From the
! f2ct7 in the case, as 7 learned them [
| decided that Ryan had no legal claim
TO care in the hospital and ordered his
discharge. We could not in this, a
general hospital, treat the man for
consumption, and if he was suffering
j from the effects Of alcohol and was not
entitled to care here. we did not want
him. For this reason only, and. not
! because he had vermin about his cloth
ing. ] discharged him. When I did so
l did not know that his clothing was
infected with vermin. This was not
| discovered until he had been informed
Of his discharge. Ordinarily when a.
patient comes to the hospital his cloth
ing is fumigated. A new ward tender
was on duty when Ryan came in. and
| the mans clothing did not undergo the
fIm1gating process. 1t was taken to
the clothing room where the apparel of
over 100 other patients is kept, and here
| When the ward tender went to GET his
clothing he found it literally alive with
Verrnin
! told by the wardrobe tender himself {"
said DR.. Ancker, calling to a Young.
man III another room who gave his
| name as Victor Holm. and said:
Il went to the clothing room to get
Ryan's clothes, the same as I do when
any patient has received his dfscharge
found the clOh ng covered with YER
min. took the clothes Gown stairs and
put them on the steps. just outside Of
the back door, on the ground floor.
where Ryan's room was I told him his
clothes were full Of vermfn. and that he
must remain at the hospital another
Gay until the clothes could be cleaned.
He said he would not do so. [ gave
him his underclothes, and was lust
then called to another part Of the hos
pit2l. When I returned Ryan was
standing on the back steps where 7 had
left his outside clothing, and was dress
Ing himself. He had gotten I'D in nv
absence, after being told that he could
not leave for another day, and instead
CT being ordered out. had of his own
accord gone to work putting on his
clothlnS lie was not in a night dress.
Dut, on the contrary, had on his un-
deTciothing, pair of slippers and had
wrapped about him blanket such as
patients wear when about the halls. II
was not raining, as the women say"
At the conclusion Of Holm's version
OF the affair, DR.. Ancker said thu uno
man had been employed at the hospital
for two and a half years, and tsat he
considered Holm trustworthy and one
Of the most reliable assistants about
the institution.
In speaking Of the case referred
! To by the women when patient had
jumped from a window DR.. Ancker
SAID 1t was true that a man with de-
lirlum tremens had jumped out Of a.
window Last spring. but DR.. Ancker
says the fall did not kill him. The man
lived several hours after the fall, DR..
Ancker said, and a post mosfem exami-
nation bad shown that he died from
natural causes. This YVES the first case
| OF the kind, Dr.. Ancker said. during
the sixteen years he has had charge Of
the hospital. He figures that 1900 pa
tients have been cared for during this
time, many of them ravlng maniacs,
and the fact that enc such escaped the
vigilance of the attendants and jumped
out of window, while unfortunate.
DR.. Ancker says does not reflect on
the Institution. The cause of the
charges made by the women, DR..
Arcker says, is due to the resentment
of the presence of the hospital by some
few residents Of the neighbolhood