Sunday Washington globe., 1902-03-02

The Emergency Hospital has an enviable
record for the promptness and efficiency Of
its staff of physicians and nurses and the
GLOBE is indisposed to criticise either It's
management as a whole or the individual
physicians and nurses on its staff. But
complaints from time to time reach this
office Of irregularities involving the lady
superintendent, as we'll as charges of mat
tentiou, etc, upon the part of physicians
and nurses. These complaints or growlings
have been heretofore ignored because the
general efficiency of the hospital was
understood to be beyond reasonable criu-
cism
This morning, however, the GLOBE has
most serious charge TO prefer, based upon
information 6ied with US by young female
patient of the institution. This young
woman was in service as a domestic in a re-
spectacle family on A near Sixth street
southeast. She became an inmate of the
hospital for treatment of a broken arm,
caused by fall, and remained in the insu.
tuition some time. When her mistress
visited her and some lady acquaintauces
she asked to be taken out, and pleaded so
earnestly for her removal that she excited
the curiosity, or astonishment Of her Wis
itors. To their objections that she needed
treatment and was we'll taken care of, she
replied only that she must leave the hos
pital. The young woman, 1t should be stated,
bears an excellent reputation and is Of an
innocent or rather unsophisticated nature
having been born in the country and not
accustomed to city life.
Finally on being pressed for her
reasons in wanting to so unTeasonably leave
before her arm warranted her removal she
made the startling statement that liberties
were taken with her under the guise of
medical treatment Incrod''los,s- lfef-frieEdn
insisted that she was mistaken and begged
Of her to be more specific. She then al.
legged that her bosom had been pressed and
other portions Of her body felt, having no
connection or bearing with her injured arm
This statement shocked her friends and
they admOnished her to be careful in max
ing allegations which might be imaginary
and due to her nervous condition and isola-
tion in an hospital. But she persisted and
repeated them with such details as con-
vinced her friends and they accordingly had
her removed, as she begged piteously to
be taken home.
1t Is we'll known that many nervous
women make charges of improper liberties
against physicians as the result of auaes-
thetics when undergoing operations,
This is notably the case among dentists who
administer ether, laughing gas, etc. It is
more than possible that the young woman
in question may from this or some other
cause be laboring under a similar delusion.
But in the face of her persistence and the
details she alleges of the liberties taken with
her az the Emergency hospital, the GLOBE
suggests an investigation Indeed the
institution is entitled to demand such, as
the gravity Of the charges made involve the
staff of the institution, if not the useful
ness Of the hospital
The minor complaints which have been
referred to embrace questions of ventila-
ton and the indifference of the superin-
tendent to the sanitary environments Of
the institution
These are properly matters Of opinion
upon which even medical practitioners
differ, some maintaining that the ventila-
tion demanded by others is a dangerous
draft injurious to the sick and couvalescent
alike. However, the charges preferred by
the young white domestic calls for action
by the proper authorities. The GLOBE will
furnish the names on request of the authori-
ties and desires TO be distinctly understood
as leaving the question open as to the truth
or the imagination Of the young woman's
allegations, pending an investigation into
the same.