Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-06-24

vxTAsHINGTON, d. c., June 1S.-Thou-
w sands Of discharged soldiers and sail
w Ors in need of medical attention are
not getting it, Men suffering from shell
shock have been found wandering about the
country dependent upon aims for living.
TuberCular men who contracted the disease
in the service, are living in impoverished
homes dependent upon the families they used
to support, or are trying to earn their own
living. Many of them have died of neglect.
These men whom the United States owes
every care that medical science can give
them, but who are not receiving any care at
all, are scattered all over the country. That
they have not been better cared for is due
partly to their own ignorance Of their rights,
and partly to the fact soldiers have been
discharged more rapidly than facilities could
be prepared to care Tor the sick ones.
The Public Health Service, which is charg-
ed with the duty of giving medical attention
to discharged soldier, sailors marines,
is just now getting into action complete
new national organization to find and care
for these men. In this work it needs the help
of the men themselves, and everyone who
knows of discharged Men who suffered sick
ness or injury in the service and have not re-
ceived proper medical attention.
The great trouble seems to be that many
men who left the service with shattered
health do not realize that congress has pass
ed law compelling tho United States gov
medical attention.
Other cases of neglect are due to the fact
that the local medical examiners employed
by the War Risk Board and the Public Health
Service have not always diagnosed cases cor
rectly. These medical examiners are simply
local doctors, employed hurriedly. The Pub
lie Health Service is now engaged in weed
ing out the inefficients, but many of them
have already done harm. They have turned
away men suffering from tuberculosis be-
cause they could not recognize the disease
Other men who had contracted tuberculosis
in the service were ,urned away when they
applied for compensation and medical treat
ment, because they were working If a man
could work, it was agreed, he was not dis
abled. Many of these men had to work or
starve
All of these injustices the Public Health
Service is now anxious to correct. Any dis
charged service man who is suffering from
sickness or injury incurred during service,
and who has not received satisfaction from
the local medical inspector, is requested to
communicate with the district supervisor of
the Public Health Service
The public health officials are especially
anxious to get in touch with discharged serv-
ice men who are suffering from tuberculosis
contracted during their terms of service 1t
is known that many of these men have not
been properly cared ior. In the southwest,
where numerous palatial senatorial are main
ldlhSu lOI IICA pdIIGAlS, LuD0TCuldT service
men have been put into inferior hospitals and
even into hotel rooms Sometimes the gov
eminent would not pay the prices asked by
the private sanatoria, and sometimes the
sanatoria fatty refused to accommodate the
soldier patients. But the Public Health
Service is now building and fitting up special
tuhercular sanatoria CT its own, and will soon
be in a position to care for a large number
of patients.
Next to the tuberculars, the psychopathic
cases seem to have been the worst sufferers.
The man who comes home with a leg missing
is easily identified as incapactated by even
the most ignorant of doctors, and he gets a
wooden leg and his compensation. But
man who is suffering from some nervous
trouble may seem perfectly healthy to a
country doctor who knows nothing about
such neurOses. Many men who were unable
to work, and even on the verge Of insanity,
have thus been refused medical attention and
compensation. The case is related O. Span
ish family in New Mexico which made elab-