The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1927-04-07
Copyright 1927 by the BonnetBrown Corporation Chcago)
WHY A CHANGE OF CLIMATE?

WHY A CHANGE OF CLIMATE?
When a doctor with limited equip
ment (mental and materially has ex-
hausted his resources in the treat
ment of patient he generally adj
vises change of climate. Patients
accustomed to following the advice of
the doctor go way To what?
What Leaving Home Means
Few persons claim my sympathy
to the extent that do the unfortunate
victims of the misguided advice that
they go away to a strange place,
among strange people-alone. What
possible justification there is in send
ing a sick person away from his
home, his family and friends, passes
my comprehension.
Generally speaking no better med
ical service is to be obtained in the
place to which he goes than is avail
able at home, excepting of course the
doctor who sent him away
In most cases the patient is saddl-
ed with expenses he is able to meet
with difficulty. In many instances he
goes into debt and his financial wor-
ries frequently retard his recovery.
He associates with people that are
sick in an environment that is morbid
in its every aspect. He sees, talks,
thinks, dreams nothing but sickness,
He is not permitted by his associates
to forget his own malady. His en-
tire outlook is a pessimistic diseased
one instead of an optimistic healthy
one. Is it any wonder he sinks into
the quicksands of hopeless neuras-
thenia?
Topping all this is the pitiful home
sickness that gnaws at his heart
strings and drives its iron into his
very sole. Only one who has drunk
this bitter cup to its dregs knows
what it means. Only one who has
never known the crue, pitilessness of
inconsistencies will consign patient
to such torment.
What Value Has Change of
Climate
When a patient leaves home that
IS about all he does leave. He takes
his disease with him. He takes along
his mind and al it's morbid faneies.
Could he divest himself of all these /
as he would his garments there
would be some sense in seeking ano-
Their environment.
Yes, it may be easier to get we'll
in one climate than another-if all |
the patient needs is change of
scene. But | have under consideration !
people who are really sick, not those
who imagine they are.
The Evidence in tuberculosis
1t may be asked-what of the
tubercular patient? Doesn't he re-
cover more surely in Arizona than in
Illinois? Eliminate the handicaps
stated above-yes- perhaps. Even so,
however, a patient in the first or
second stage has as good chance in +
one climate as in another, everything |
else being equal. They do not want /
third stage cases in the West; most
sanitariums will not accept them.
1t is true thousands go away, get
wei, and come back home, cured
But wouldn't they have gotten we'll
had they stayed at home? I believed
they would, and observation in hun
dreds of cases has made this belief
conviction. Not only that but I
am convinced that thousands who die
away from home would be living to-
day had they remained at home In
any event I would rather die of tu-
berculosis at home than of homesick-
ness in a strange land And the lat
ter is what kills many if not most of
them.
A Tragic Lesson
A brilliant chap suffering from tu-
berculosis weighed one hundred and
fifty pounds when he went away and
one hundred when he returned year
later. When I saw his face on which
the disease had left it's lines I
thought what folly it had been for