Evening star., 1943-09-14
Ga||inger Probe
To Be Sought
By McCarran
14o TB Patients
Charge Food Is Poor,
Dirt Is Rampant

Chairman McCarran Of the Senate
District Committee today planned
to introduce resolution authorizing
a sweeping investigation of the op-
Grafton of Gallinger Municipal Hos
pital.
Primary purpose of the inquiry.
he said, will be to sift charges Of
149 patients in the tuberculosis
ward that the food served them
is inferior in quality. improperly
prepared and limited in quantity.
A petition of protest signed by
the 149 patients declared they had
been served cereals containing wee-
wills and full grown larvae, meat
which smells and tasts "high," rice
that is frequently "gummy" or else
dry and underdone, fruits. that are
not sufficiently washed, and beans
that are usually so hard they cam
not be crushed with fork.
Lack Of Cleanliness CHARGED.
Complaints also were made about
the apparent lack of ordinary
cleanliness" dirty walls, screens
and windows, cockroaches and even
bed bu, md fieas-and "sickening"
conditions in the toilets and bath
rooms.
The petition also complained that
bodies of those who died in any of
the wards at Gallinger were taken
up a hill to the hospital morgue
In full view of the west side OF the
tuberculosis ward. While these
bodies were covered, the fact that
they were taken by on wheeled
stretchers within sight was said to
have had a depressing effect on
patients.
DIR. Bocock Silent.
DR.. Edgar A. Bocock, superin-
tendent of the hospital, had no I'M
mediate comment on the charges.
He said it would be inappropriate
for him to say anything in view of
the threatened congressional inves-
tigation.
Senator McCarran, Democrat, Of
Nevada, however, declared in a pre-
pared statement:
Serious charges concerning con-
ditions at the Gallinger Municipal
Hospital have come to my attention
In my capacity as chairman of the
Senate District Committee.
The nature of these charges is
such that if they had any basis Of
TACT, remedial action is called for.
At the same time, the charges are
SO serious that fairness demands
that they be fully investigated.
Accordingly, I shall introduce .
resolution authorizing an investiga-
ton to determine the truth of the
specific charges and to determine
| also any other facts and conditions
in connection with the operation of
Gallinger Hospital which should be
| corrected"
Senator's Aide Tells of Visit.
Senator McCarrans attention was
called to the alleged conditions at
GaHinger by r. A. Seeing, secretary
to Senator Bone, Democrat. of
Washington, who visited the hospi-
tai and made report on his obser-
vations. He said he went there to
see Oscar Svarlein. who came to
this country from Norway and was
working as q translator at the Ii
brary of Congress when it was dis
covered he had tuberculosis and was
sent to Gallinger for treatment.
Il visited Mr.. Svarlein," said the
report, "and found out from him
that the food is so poor patients
rapidly lose weight unless they get
good food from the outside; that no
effort is made to feed patients who
are too weak to help themselves. so
they just keep going down, and die
OF starvation as much as TB; that
no effort is made to keep patients at
rest; that medical care is given
grudgingly. Mr.. Svarlein decided
he could not possibly recover his
health at Gallinger; and being more
fortunate than many who are there
in that he had some place else to
go, he transferred on August 27 to
Western North Carolina Sanator-
lum,, Black Mountain, N. c."
Mr.. Seeing said that Mrs. Fred
Stell, 2402 Twenty-flrst place NE,
Red Cross worker, had spent 100
hours a month helping patients in
the TB ward, and that she circulated
the petition of protest which out
lined "the views of the patients that
they are not being helped to get
we'll"