Evening star., 1946-04-14
Words and Dying Bubies

LIE people OF washington are
being shocked again by what are, to
them, new and startling revelations
about Gallinger Hospital.
They are told by the doctor in
charge that babies are dying there,
choking to death on their bottles
because there are not enough nurses
to give them proper care. Perhaps
fifty or more" newborn infants
died last year at Gallinger from
preventable causes.
Yet the House subcommittee which
handled the District bill this year
eliminated an item which would
have given the obStetrical nursery
the thirty additional nurses needed
to prevent continuation of such a
condition-which is not new one.
The same subcommittee, under
the Craftsmanship of Representative
Coffee of Washington, has been more
sympathetic and more intelligently
interested in giving Washington
what it needs than any comparable
subcommittee in recent years. Why
would this subcommittee arbitrarily
cut from an appropriation bill the
relatively small amount of money
which the doctors maintain is neces-
sary to save the lives of fifty or
more newborn infants each year?
The matter is worth exploring.
The subcommittee devoted thirty
five pages to hearing the requests
for Gallinger Hospital. Here is how
the superintendent of Gallinger pre-
sented the case to the committee for
the dying babies:
o6stetrical nursery-Three charse nurses
o tS. sps
for,pn for prsmature and ful-term infants. and for
in orar sS s.rSe, y
may be available in this unit
Further on, in general descrip-
ton of the hospital, occurs this
statement, in the same type:
The present facilities for mothers and infants
the deliveries which take place in the District
G5 p. aoaps are s cared for At Ganser Mun
service fuctuates somewhat the rate TOR ia45
for the prevoas year infant wm nsr
especiany among premature infants, is reflected
oy the nursing care given.
That is the sole reference to a con-
dition which finds, according to the
doctors, babies choking to death
from lack of care. That is all the
House committee was told about a
situation which now is being de-
scribed, to Senate subcommittee.
as rather horrible, but you have
help or you don't" Even the Com
missioners were not familiar with it.
It the health officer is familiar with
1t, his expressions on the subject evi-
IDENTIFY must also have been buried in
coldly statistical type. And when an
explanation is requested from the
Gallinger doctors, one is informed
that the requesttor more nurses was
plainly stated to the House COM
mittee, as witness above. 1T was only
when the request was refused that
the doctors concluded that a more
elaborate description Of why the
nurses were needed might be helpful.
The Stars views on the shameless
system of using local tax revenues to
support Federal projects in Wash
ington-thus curtailing the amount
required for pressing local needs
are too well known to require repe-
tition now. But in this case it is
unfair to blame the House Sub
committee on District Appropria-
tions for tolerating the needless
death of babies The doctors and
the budget officials should long
since have stopped talking about
SP-5s and IS and should have
shouted from the housetops that
lack of care is costing the lives of
newborn infants. We need a greater
display of righteous indignation on
their part, and less conformance to
routine budget making.