Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-02-04
By Jack Jones'
BOY had a toothache.


2 years old. with wide brown
eyes full of wonder at the strange
things going on around him.
A doctor in the Gallinger Hos
pital emergency room looked at
the tooth. He decided it was
matter for the dentist. The boy
waited on his fathers lap in a
small room inside the emer-
gency entrance.
In the hall a drunk in a brown
overcoat wavered back and forth.
He knew the routine. He'd been
there many times before. sober
ing up to go back and get drunk
again.
Get me in the hospital, Doc"
he pleaded. Get me in the
hospital. You got a cigarette.
friend?"
He had an explanation. His
son, he said, had been hurt in
a small fire. So he got drunk.
he said.
I'm so drunk I can't see," he
said. rubbing his eyes. His
hands trembled as he Lit the
cigarette.
A man with his arm in a sling
waited on a bench nearby while
a doctor, studied his X-rays. His
face was drawn with pain.
I've been having trouble with
this arm since I was in the
SERVICE" he said. cts a slipped
joint"
Victim of Daughters Wrath.
He'd been an ambulance
driver in the Army in Germany
during the immediate postwar
period. He couldn't remember
what had happened to his arm.
In another room, an inferno
was sewing up a cut on a mans
head. The mans 14-year-old
daughter had broken a wine
bottle over his head q short
time before.
This was a Saturday night at
Gallinger, and these were among
the thousands of cases that the
hospital handles each month.
DR.. Frank Miller, admitting
officer until midnight, said nearly
10000 cases came through the
admitting room during 1852. At
1870 pm, he checked the rec
ord, and noted that 70 had come
| in since z pm. and 2l1 since
! midnight the day before.
tits really a pretty quiet
/ night" he said. 81 remember
| Christmas eve. The blood was
so thick on the floor in front of
the desk here it was like walk
ing through mud"
He wasn't joking; he was seri-
Gus.
Holidays and the days after
Government paydays are the
worst" he said. -"People get
drunk, and start cutting each
other up. Right now they've
used up their money on the holi-
days. But it'll start again."
Gallinger is a city hospital.
Cases which wind up there are
principally persons who can't af-
ford to go to private doctor
or hospital. Sometimes the hos
pital gets emergency cases from
paying patients. These are
treated, and then transferred to
another hospital.
A long row Of benches stand
Just inside the door to the emer-
gency and admitting rooms.
These were crowded with pros
pective cases-non- emergency
and with relatives or friends Of
those being treated.
A policeman-the Police De-
partment has an office at the
emergency room-led a mar
cotics addict down the hall and
locked him in the security room.
The addict's hand was cut. A
doctor said the man had resisted
efforts to treat the wound.
There was another man in the
security room, a drunk, lying on
a pallet on the floor. The police
man carried a coat.
els this your coat?" he asked
the drunk.
The drunk looked up, but
made no reply. He appeared
not to understand the question.
The policeman spread the coat
over him.
The narcotics addict looked
down at the drunk. then moved
to the door to peer through the
small screened window.
A man in an operating room
he had been attacked with a
knife-got up from his bed to
stroll down the hall. He left
behind a pool of blood on the
mattress. His head carried a
bump the size Of an egg, band
aged, and his back and chest
had been Slashed.
IAN "A. D. w. assault with