The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-05-11
PHYSICIAN TESTIFIES.
DR.. J. L. Thompson in Asylum In
Quiry.-Care of Patients, Food
and Other Matters.


charged with investigating The State
Hospital for the Insane took new
tack today. Inslcad Of sunmonine
former patients and discharged keep
ers, DR.. J. l.. Thompson, who has
been connected with the institution for
a generation, was called to the stand.
DR.. Thompson has for more than
twenty-seven years been toiling and
struggling to do what he could for
the sufferers, who have been so un-
fortunate as to be sent to the hospi-
tai. All speak kindly Of him. He
has big heart and is hard worker.
Today he mboSomed himself and
told everything he knew. Mr.. Har-
riSon, Of the committee, largely d.
rected the inquiries, and DR.. Thomp-
son-good Presbyterian that he is
kept nothing back. If anything was
not exactly what he thought it should
be he said so.
When DR.. Thompson went to the
Hospital for the Insane the State al
lowed $40 for the care Of each pa
tient. Now, with the increased at
tendance each patient must be sup
ported on less than $40, and there
in is the key to the entire situation.
DR.. Thompson told tale that will
no doubt appeal to many, and it
should, but back Of it all, and
grounding the entire trouble, is the
lack of money. With more money
more doctors might be employed.
With more money and better
cooks might be employed. With
more money and better nurses could
be secured. With more money paint
ing could and would be done, and so
it goes.
Perhaps there will be no one to tell
the story Of how much has been done
with the little that is available, and
how faithfully and with what self
sacrifice DR.. Babcock and DR.. Thomp-
son and DR.. Saunders and the others
have labored.
Were things wrong, at least from
his viewpoint, DR.. Thompson said So.
He thought the food was i'll prepar-
ed at times. He said so. He thought
the kitchen needed a trained head.
He did not say that one cook was
doing the cooking for an average of
200 people, and that the Institution
did not feel able to get more cooks,
because, as he frankly stated, he
knew nothing about the finances of
the hospital. He was in charge OF
the white male department and did
the best he could, and in this all
agree.
There is one and very important
point in DR.. Thompson's testimony
that ought to dispel the worries of
many. Previous witnesses have tes-
tilted to the abuse of patients in his
wards. Dr.. Thompson frankly stated
that he had investigated the particu-
lar cases referred to in the evidence
of the previous witnesses. and did
not think he was justified in asking
the dismissal Of the nurses. In one
case the patient, he said, was waiting
and maliciously hit the nurse as he
was passing. and did not expect a
blow. and that the nurse, being un-
expectedly hit. struck back. In the
other case the patient he found had
tripped himself and fallen.
Dr.. Thompson said that in every
case. where he had asked for the re-
moval Of a nurse for i'll treating or
abusing a patient the nurse was dis
missed. There was not single case
in which he had recommended the re-
moval Of a nurse for abuse of pa
tient that such was not done. DR..
Thompson toward the close Of the
morning session related that DR.. Bah
cock at one time became incensed at
the abuse that nurse was offering a
patient and struck the nurse with his
walking can. This is said to have
had. a salutary effect on the disposi-
tion of nurses for some time.
It is to be said that the committee
is going at its evidence now in the
right way. There was not much SYM
pathv in the examination of the type
of witnesses on the stand yesterday.
Recess Taken in Asylum Inquiry.