The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-09-14
.C0NSUMPT|VES
STARvE TO DEATH
Sensational Statistics Gathered
by Los Angeles Physicians
on Transient Sufferers

Los Angeles, Sept. 14-"Four thou
sand consumptives starve yearly"
is the startling headline over a press
bulletin of the National association
for the study and prevention OF tub
erculosis, made public today.
In this bulletin the national asso-
citation takes up the movement to
prevent INDECENT tuberculosis suffer-
ers from being sent to Los Angeles
and other regions in the southwest.
to become public charges, and usually
to undergo great privation uselessly.
Data concerning the numbers of
these sufferers who are sent to Los
Angeles every year was obtained by
the national association from local
health authorities some time ago.
In the bulletin just given out as a
result the practice of eastern doctors
who persist in sending dying con-
sumptives to the southwest is char
acterized as "cruel and inhuman."
Fully 71S0 persons hopeessly dis
eased with tuberculosis annually"
says the bullein, come to die in the
states of California. Arizona, New
them by order of their physicians.
THE statement, which is based up
on the testimony of well-known ex-
perts, and all available statistics,
shows that at least fifty per cent of
those who go to the southwest every
year for their health are so far advanc-
ed in their disease that they cannot
hope for cure in any climate. under
any circumstances. More than this.
at least sixty per cent of these ad-
vanced cases are so poor that they
have not sufficient means to provide
for the proper necessaries of life
which means that 4315 consumptives
are either starved to death or forced
to accept charitable relief every year.
at is not an uncommon thing, the
national association declares, for
whole families, who can hardly eke
out a living in the east, to migrate to
the west in the hope Of saving the
life of some member of the family.
In most instances. the abject poverty
of such cases forces them to beg. or
to live on IL very low level. Often
consumptives who cannot afford the
proper travelling accommodations are
found dead on the trains before
reaching their destination. The re-
sources of almost every charitable or
ganization in the southwest are drain
ed every years to care for cases which
would be self-supporting in their
eastern homes
ut cost, on an average, at least
$50 month for the support of a con-
sumptive in the southwest, including
some medical attention. The nation
al association strongly urges no one
to go to this section who has not
sufficient funds to care for himself
at least one year. in addition to what
his family might require of him dur
ing this time. 1t is also urged that
no person who are far advanced
with tuberculosis go to SO distant a
climate.
Consumption can be cured, or ar
rested in any section of the United
States, and the percentage of cures in
the east and the west is nearly the
same.
"Any physician. therefore, who
sends person to the southwest with
out sufficient funds, or in an advanced
or dying stage of the disease, is guilty
of cruelty to his patient Renewed ef-
forts are being made to stop this
practice. and to encourage the build
ing of small local hospitals in every
city and town Of the country"