Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-01-10
HOSPITAL. IkFlUENzA SUIT At
WATERLOO BEING vleoR.
ousLv CONTESTED.
BREACH OF CONTRACT TO
ADMIT FLU" PATIENTS.
Defense 10 Heard in Suit to Force Hos.
pitai to Accept Victims Of Prevailing
overwhelmingly Shows Nearly
/ Al Nurses in Hospital Contracted
influenza from Patients.

Waterloo. Jan. l0--A claim OF ahro-
CATION of contract between the Fran
cscan Sisters and the Waterloo cluo
and board of trade, which PROVIDED
that ON the condition of payment OF
$4,000 by popular subscription by peo-
rle in Waterloo and vicinity no con-
tagious disease should be taken into st.
Francis hospital was made by To- de-
PENDANT in the trial of the flu case,
entitled board of health against Fran
cscan Sisters. today.
The original contract was offered in
evidence, but the board of health OBJ
jected on the ground that no contract
made then could now be binding on the
Plaintiff.
That the Franciscan sisters. whose
home or cloister is located on the first
floor would be driven from their
quarters and might have no other place
to go. if Influenza patients and others
were permitted to use the private
stairway to the second floor. was the
statement in evidence given by Sister
Mary Bernadette. surgical nurse and
supervisor of the hospital.
Their quarters would have to be in
vaded if the object of the board Of
health was to be attained. said Sister
Bernadette.
THE rules Of our order say there
must be positive enclosure of the clois-
ter" said the witness. No one is per-
mitted to enter except physician or
priest. the physician in case Of illness
and the priest when prayers are re-
quested in serious sickness" she
stated.
Explained "Flu" Cases.
Sister Bernadette on cross examina-
ion states II cases of influenza o"
pneumonia had either developed in the
hospital or were brought there in the
past four months. On redirect she ex-
planned that the first cases were not
diagnosed as influenza and that in all
cases the patients We're :tsolated-if
sisters who are nurses or other sisters.
they are cared for in segregation in a
room over the heating plant: if patients
or maids. they were sent to the deten-
ton hospital The elevator was dis
inf1H8 d and rooms fumigated, she eX-
planned.
AS tending to show. the danger of an
influenza case, or one that had the in
fluenza germs, in the hospital. Sister
Bernadette detailed the instance Of a
Mr.. Henningson, who was brought
there for an operation for relief from
an abscess in. a pleural cavity. The
two sisters who nursed this patient had
the influenza. The other sisters con
II r,~;, RI
they were isolated The disease. it was
indicated. was transmitted by the two
sisters who were nurses to the other
sisters in the dining room. The patient,
being a carrier. was taken to deten-
ton hospital. In this same case. 1t
was shown, a sister who had nursed
Mr.. Remington, conveyed the germs
to another patient. surgical case
which she attended. making five VIC
Tins. Most Of the eleven sisters who
are nurses contracted the disease while
nursing influenza or pneumonia pa
tients, either at st. Francis or emer-
gency hospital.
No One Knows.
Asked If the second wave Of influ-
enza. the crest of which has been
passed here, would probably be the
last, DR.. shannon told Alfred Longley
Of counsel for the franciscan Sisters
that no man could know. DR.. Shan
non said that. so far as his observation
went, the decline in influenza cases is
not as yet very rapid. The period Of
incubation. he explained. was from
eighteen hours to three days. He be-
lieved the life Of the FLU" germ was
brief.