The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-12-02
URGENT NEED OF A
CONTAGIOUS WARD
NO sUcH INSTITUTION AT ANY
OF THE HOSPITALS.
Every Day, Almost, Brings Forth
Practical Argument of It's Neces-
sity-Erysipelas Patient at the
Lackawanna Hospital Had to Be
Isolated in Tumble Down Build
ing in Raymond Court-Better
Quarters Secured for the Nurses.
Another Resident Physician.

There is pressing and urgent need
at the Lackawanna hospital for a con-
tagious ward, an even greater need
than for a children's ward and almost
every day brings forth a practical ar
gument in favor of the building OF
such an addition.
There is no hospital, public or private,
in the city at the present time in
which a patient suffering from any in
fectious disease will be received for
treatment. All the cases of transmiss-
able disease arising in the city are,
therefore, necessarily obliged to re-
ceive home treatment.
Home treatment is very satisfactory
provided that the services of a nurse.
which are so necessary in the majority
of cases, can be secured. But to the
poorer class of persons a trained
nurse is out of the question and they
are the ones who would be most bene-
fitted.
The physicians at the hospital are
daily obliged to turn away persons
who desire to have relatives who are
suffering from infectious diseases re-
ceived. This has been especially no
ticeable during the past six or eight
so prevalent In some cases the par
ents who desire to have their sick chill
dren receive the care which they are
willing but through force of circum-
stances unable to give them often
plead earnestly and pitifully with the
doctors.
ONE SAD INSTANCE.
man came to the hospital only yes
terday whose little daughter he said
was suffering from scarlet fever in its
most malignant form. His wife Is also
sick and he is in danger of losing his
position by staying at home to nurse
them. He stated he was entirely with
out funds, not even enough to buy
medicine and went away with tears
streaming down his face when told that
his child could not be received at the
hospital.
This is only a single case out of the
dozens which have come to the atten-
tion of the hospital staff. Besides the
great need of a contagious ward for
the benefit of the public generally and
the poor especially, there is another
and perhaps as important a one.
This is nothing more or less than
the breaking out of a contagious dis
ease in the hospital itself and the ne
cessity for the immediate isolation Of
the afflicted person. Perhaps the most
peculiarly and subtly contagious of all
diseases, and one which breaks out
without warning in hospitals especially
is erysipelas. Hospital surgeons have
great dread for this disease, and
when it appears it must be isolated
Immediately.
There is at present in the Lacka-
wanna a patient suffering from this
disease and it has been necessary TO
remove him to one of the buildings
lately acquired by the hospital on Ray
mond court. This is a tumble-down
frame structure, purchased with the
intention of tearing it down, and yet
1t has to be used as a contagious ward
In order that the disease might not
| spread.
The hospital doctors have not enough
| funds in hand to even fit up this build
| Ing in anything like habitable man.
ner, let alone build a new one for the
| purpose. A effort will be made in the
near future to interest the charitab BILE
| throughout the city in the crying need
of this Improvement, and it is hoped
| that money will be received sufficient
for all purposes.
NURSES NEW QUARTERS.
The sixteen nurses at the hospital
are now quartered in the dwelling ad-
| joining the hospital and fronting on
Franklin avenue, which was purchased
| for this purpose. The building has
been thoroughly fitted up at an expense
| of about $1,000 and the nurses removed
| thither last week, with sighs of salts
| faction, from their old quarters in the
| Delaware and Hudson building, few
doors away, which did not, to say the
| least, possess all the comforts Of Il
| home.
The new. one does, however. The
rooms are neatly and tastefully fur
nished and the crowding of three or
| four into one room necessitated by the
| size of the old building is done away
with. A lecture room has also been
| fitted up and provided with the requis-
| lite furniture The regular course OF
winter lectures began the early part
| OF this week, DR.. Gunster delivering
the initiatory one.
After the beginning of the new year
there will be three resident surgeons
at the hospital instead of two as at
present. This decision has been ar
rived at by President j. p. Dickson,