The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1905-06-13
Beaten BY
HEARTLESS
NURSES

New York. June 13.-Mrs. Theodore A.
Spear. wife of druggist at Smithtown,
J.. l.. was for two years nurse in the
Long Island state Hospital for the In
sane at Kings Park. She resigned TO
marry Mr. Spear. who is a cousin OF VIII
liam H. Parkhurst, commissioner OF
lunacy.
Mrs Spears says that cr~eltes to
patients at Kings Park are habitually
practised by nurses and attendants and
that many patients die from injuries In
fiicted. She says that while the doctors
seldom witness assaults. they do see the
effects OF them in broken bones, black
ened eyes and bruised bodies and do
not take the proper means 10 discover
the guilty nurses or TO protect patients
from further violence.
Generally, the patients who are
troublesome are cruelty treated, sa1d
Mrs. Spear. This Includes patients who
insist on talking or singing. who will not
stay In bed. those who are untidy or who
quarrel with other patients Many nurses
forget that their charges are irrespon-
sible. and when the patients refuse 10
submit they resort 10 violence.
THE nurses are protected in their acts
of violence by what might be called
system When they get into trouble
they stand by one another. III n patient
is found with broken ribs or broken
arm, every nurse I'm the ward will be pre-
pared TO swear that the patient fell out
OF bed In a fit or slipped while taking
a bath. The patients stand In dread Of
the nurses as a rule and dare not make
complaints when the doctors come around.
SOME KIND WOMEN.
"I do not wish 10 be understood as say
ALL
the contrary, there were good. kind
hearted young women among them I
have known several cases where these
young women, reported acts OF cruelty
10 the physicians. The latter, instead
OF making a thorough investigation and
discharging the guilty ones. would let
81 become known that the nurse with a
heart had told tales, and thereafter her
life would be made so miserable that
generally she would be glad to resign
within a week or two.
MY observation is that many OF the
physicians have little sympathy with the
patients. II IL their carelessness that
makes IL possible for nurses TO abuse
patients.
II have known times when patients
were dying in the wards and II was i'm
possible to find physician in the institu-
tion. have known physicians who were
on night duty 10 absent themselves. and
have In mind one man who Is still on
the medical STAFF at Kings Park who used
10 come In so much under the influence
OF liquor that he was unable to care for
himself, let alone his patients.
STRANGLED WITH WET TOWEL.
There were two methods regularly
employed by many nurses for quieting
troublesome patients while I was at
Kings Park. One was TO get the patient
down on the floor and jump on her chest
with the knees.
THAT is the way so many ribs are
broken. The other method was TO place
a wet towel about the patients throat
and twist 1t up until she was unable TO
breathe.
al have seen women choked in this
manner until they were black in the face
The wet towel would seldom leave any
mark. / recall the case OF an old woman
in Ward who was suffering from re-
lgious mania. Everybody called her
Granny Her case reminds me OF that
OF Glasheen, who is said TO have been
murdered in Ward 10, which has been in
vestigated.
zone night when she was troublesome
/ saw two or three OF the nurses give
her n bath 10 make her keep quiet and
then rut her TO bed and choke her with a
O'Hanlon, who was then and still is the
assistant superintendent. but he did not
do anything about II so far as I know.
except TO tell everybody in the ward that
] had told on them"