The Washington herald., 1918-01-25

Dear sir and friend: As you
know. I have recently lost . son
with spinal meningitis at - I
am writing to you as one that I
know to be greatly interested in
the welfare of our soldier boys,
and ready to do anything In your
power for their well being, and be-
cause you know me and will know
whether to give credit to what
say.
Please know in the very begin
ming that / do not write to criti-
else the government in any sense.
nor to lay complaint against any
one in authority. I realize that in
the stupendous task before US as
a government, and with the great
diversity of interests involved,
that 1t is impossible that there
should not occur some things that
should be corrected. 1t is with the
hope that may help somewhat
with the task before US that I lay
bare the facts as I found them in
connection with my sons sickness
at -
Through friends entirely inde-
pendent of the army officers and
the medical staff. ] learned Of my
sons sickness after he had been in
the hospital for six days. With
my wife 1 went Immediately to the
camp. arriving there the morning
Of -. I found my son In the
meningitis ward Of the base hos
pital 1t was the eighth day OF his
sickness, as I was informed by the
attending physician. His mother
see him through a window at the
head Of his bed. The small room
in which he was lying contained
one other bed on which was a pa
tient; a stove in which there ap-
peared to be no fire. The room
was not simply unsanitary; ii was
filthy. beggaring description.
The bed on which my son was
lying was even more filthy than
the room. cannot describe to
you the condition of my sons
body. Except to say that neither
his hands nor face had been wash
ed for eight days. CThe attendant
admitted this to me.) The reason
given for his being in this condi-
tion was that he, the attendant,
had but one helper in the ward
and there was eighteen cases there
at that time. I asked IL 1 might
put a nurse in there to take care
Of him and the physician said that
could not be allowed. I offered to
put in a trained nurse and pay all
expenses.
I then asked IL I myself might go
in and clean him up and take care
OF him. The physician, very kindly
in manner all OF the time, said
that II could not be. then asked
IL I would bring clean clothes for
him II they would clean him up
and put them on him so that his
mother might see him again. and
rot have to remember him in the
plight she had just seen him. They
said they would gladly do SO.
went to Lawton and got clean
clothes and when / returned they
had made some effort TO wash his
face and hands, although they
were still grimy and black. His
clothes were changed. his bed
Strengthened out, and his mother
was called TO see him again. There
was no change made in the condi-
ton of the room. Before leaving.
again made a plea to be permitted
to care for him. gladly taking all
risk, but the rules were infieXible.
l could not be admitted in any
way. The attending physician was
kind to US and 1 do not mean to
imply that he was in any way to
blame. He told US, however, as
we were about to leave, that We
should not return for three or four
days. To this order l had no in
tention of giving heed, neither did 1.
His mother did not see him
again. The next morning early
his father-in-law, Mr.. W. n.
Harris, of Arkansas City. Kans.,
went to the ward, and while the
mercury was down about zero
there was no fire in the room, the
bedding was on the floor, the
boy lay on the bed naked with
the exception of a thin night
shirt that was up around his
neck.
About 3 o'clock that afternoon
I found him in the same condi-
tion and the room without fire.
The next morning at about s
o'clock we found him in practi-
cally the same condition. No one
knew of our visits to the hos
pital except two workmen, who
were working on the sewer ditch
in front of the hospital. To them
nd the
purpose of my going to the hos
pital. I refer now. of course. to
the visits we made after we were
instructed not to visit the hos
pital. On neither of these visits
was there an attendant in the
room nor fire in the stove. A
perfectly we'll man would have
become sick in that room. The
mercury was around zero then
all of the time.
At this time I went direct to
the chief of the medical stan
and told him the situation and
asked to be permitted to go and
attend my boy. He Immediately
gave orders that ] be admitted
and be given every facility for
caring for my son. 1 went at
once, but was too late, as he
died about fifteen minutes after
1 got into the ward and before
1 was permitted to do anything
for him.
That you may know something
Of the fearful handicap the gov
ernment works under in the mat
ter of competent help, give you
this one instance.
Now I want you to note this:
ct requested the attendant to
give my son a drink of water.
He went out and brought in
small bowl of water. and tried
to get son to drink from 1t, but
he could not. He said 1 guess l
had better get a funnel. (The
boy was lying on his back with
his mouth open). He came back
in a moment with a funnel made
of a piece of newspaper, and put
ting II in NV sons mouth WAS