The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-04
Topeka Girl Tells of Funston
Hospital Conditions.
Soldiers Get Out of Bed To Get
Their Own Food.
DOCTORS THERE ARE CARELESS
Base Hospital and Sanitary
Train Try to Shirk?
Officers Get Much Better Care
Than the Privates.

Every morning in the ward rooms
at the base hospital marked section
K' in Fort Riley, one can see a young
or an old lieutenant doctor padding
his way down the rows of cots. A
fair sample of the attention the pa
tents get from the doctor 'lieuts'' is
this according to a story told by a
Topeka girl who was a nurse in the
hospital for several weeks.
The acknowledgements comes into
the ward, gazes nonchalantly down
the row of cots for a moment and
steps to the foot of the first bed.
How are you this morning." says
the lieutenant
Not very well, DOCTOR" replies the
sick private.
That's all right, you will feel bet
ter tomorrow" responds the lieuten-
ant as he approaches the next bed.
And the army doctor, lieutenant
goes serenely on his way.
Worst Gases Are There.
This is the scene in the ward
rooms where the sick privates suffer
and die and possibly recover in war
base hospital K at Fort Riley the
largest hospital on the reservation and
the one to which the most desperate
cases are sent for treatment" the
nurse said. But in the ward rooms
devoted to- sick officers all is different.
Nothing is too great an effort to be
done for a sick officer. He is babied
and pampered by doctors and nurses
alike''
The Topeka girl said that the sick
Privates are forced to prepare and
COOK all or the food used in the hospi-
tai-an unsanitary practice in itself
ana that those privates not actively
engaged in the preparation of the food
are forced to get up from their sick
peds. go down a flight of stairs to the
Kitchen to get their food, to return to
their rooms to eat it and then must go
back to the kitchen and wash their
own dishes
Regulars Shirk Duty.
In the different ward rooms at the
hospital man is stationed who is sup
posed to see that the floors around
tne oeos are kept clean and that ev
erything is kept sanitary Now it hap
pens that some of the serious cases in
the Camp Funston hospitals are sent
to hospital ''K'' at Fort Riley for treat
ment, and these drafted men are not
familiar with the laws and usage of
the army. The regulars assigned to
care for hospital quarters in hospital
X are reported as taking advantage
or the ignorance of the men from
Funston and of forcing them to get
up from their sick beds and sweep
and scrub the ward room floors.
Another condition existing at Fort
Riley, the girl stated, is the increasing
disposition of the sanitary trains to try
to shift the responsibility of cases to
the base hospital and the base hospital
doing the same thing in regard to the
sanitary trains For instance: A man
is taken sick in his tent and the sani-
tary department is notified of the fact
The head of the sanitary train says
it's a base hospital job. Base hospital
is notified of the case. The head of
the base hospital says it is a sanitary
train job. Result, patient lies in his
tent without any attention except from
his comrades until the case is settled
and either the sanitary train or the
base hospital is forced to assume the
responsibility. THE settlement always
takes more than one day and frequent
ly three or four, and all of that time
the patient is deprived of any atten-
ton except as his unskilled comrades
are able to render him. the nurse said
today.
These are only a few of the things
the authorities of base hospital t'K'
at Fort Riley are accused of doing by
the Topeka girl who was employed as
a nurse in that same hospital for a
period of weeks.