ARROWTOWN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 739, 16 June 1876, Page 3

ARROWTOWN.

(FROM OCR CORRESPONDENT.) We have had a large number of visitors to the Reefs lately, a good few of them coming from Cromwell and the Dunstan. From all that I can leam everybody is highly delighted at what they saw. The famous Cross reef is of course the favorite, shares iu the “ All Nations ” and “ Maryborough” being set down as sure fortunes. The weather has been frightfully cold of late, and has put a stop to nearly all mining operations at Macetown. There is very little doubt hut that we shall have a great rush this coming spring, and I fancy there is very little to doubt of the result.

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. —o—[We do not hold ourselves responsible for opinions expressed by correspondents.] —o— MOUNT IDA DISTRICT HOSPITAL. (TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUNSTAN TIMES.) Sir:—Some very exaggerated and damaging reports have obtained currency respecting the treatment of patients in the Fever Ward of the Mount Ida District Hospital, and even found their way into the columns of our local paper. These reports are likely to be copied into other papers, and thus to obtain a circulation much wider than that of the journal in which they first appear, and thus to do great injury to the credit of a valuable charitable Institution. We therefore respectfully request that you will afford us space in your columns for a brief statement of the actual facts upon which the superstruction of mis-statements have been raised. We are especially induced to take this step because a whole week must elapse before any correction of the errors can appear in the paper in which they have been promulgated, and great injury to the credit of the Institution may be done in the interval if these statements are allowed to remain unchallenged. A detached building has lately hern erected alongside the Hospital as a Fever Ward—this building is of concrete, containing three apartments ; no case of fever occurred until Tuesday, May 30, when a man named M’Master was brought in from St Bathan’s—-at the time there was fortunately only one patient in the Institu. tion, and that one convalescent. It was not therefore thought necessary to engage an additional attendant for the Fever Ward. On the Friday following another fever patient (Mr H. Wilkes) was brought in also from St. Bathan’s without notice and late in the evening. It was necessary to place him in the same room with the other patient as that room was the only one in which there wasa fire ready. The next day Wilkes was moved into another room which was properly warmed The first patient being left in the room he had all along occupied, and in which he died the same evening. It is imputed to the management of the Hospital that the patients were treated with barbarity—that the patient M’Master was “strapped down as a precaution ” —that the other patient was in dread of him, and that the two men were “ left to get through the night as best they could also, that Jl'Master was allowed to die without spiritual consolation, and finally that, his body was “ carted away as carrion, and buried without redgious ceremony ” la reply to these charges we have simply to state that the two patients were visited by the Surgeon at 11, p.m., when he ordered sleeping potions for both—that these potions were administered by the Wardsman at about half post 12, and that a second dose was administered to M'Master at half past 5, a. m. —thus, the men were only left for five hours, and during those five hours were sure to he quiet, as they had received opiate medicines.

There was no “ strapping down,” but a flannel band was passed over M’Master’s bed to keep the clothes on him—this is a common precaution against patients catching cold, and it is this which is distorted into the cruelty of “ straoping down.” As for the patient being allowed to die without spiritual consolation, it was not known to what religious denomination he belonged, and no clergyman had been to the Hospital during the week he was there. Both Surgeon and Wardstnan were present when he expired, and had he asked for a Clergyman, his wishes would have been attended to.

The charge that the body was “carted away as carrion ”is simply absurd. The funeral was conducted by the regular undertaker ; the body was placed in a decent coffin, covered with black cloth, and was conveyed to the Cemetery in the same vehicle that is usually employed for all funerals in Naseby, drawn by two horses with black housings, at a walking pace. The interment was not attended by any M inister, but as tbe brother-in-law of the deceased had been telegraphed to, and had not replied, and as the religion of the deceased was not known, it is not reasonable to blame the Committee of the Hospital for the absence of religious ceremonial. The interment was witnessed by two householders who have signed the usual certificate.

In conclusion, we feel bound to state that we honestly Relieve that for kind and humane treatment of patients, the Mount Ida District Hospital will compare favorably with any in the country, and that we invite the most searching investigation into all, or any of the charges that have been so recklessly advanced against it. Weave, Sir, H. W. Robinson, (President). T. B. Whitton, M.D., (Surgeon) E. T. George, (Secretary). Naseby, June 10, 1876. [The reports above referred to as being in the local Paper, we find treated in a subheader, the which to make matters more clear to our readers we give in full] : "Last week wa reported that Jervis M'Mastcr had been brought into the Hospital from Cambrian, and that Wilkes was under treatment locally at St. Bathans M‘Master died in the fever ward on Saturday of acute peritonitis, and Wi'kes, when we wrote last week, unknown to us, was in the same ward, having been brought in from St Bathan’s. We have this week to *ay a few plain words in regard to the treatment of these men. On Friday night last Wilkes and M‘Master were left to themaevles in the completely isolated ward, to pet through the muht as best they could. If. as we are informed, M‘Master was strapped down as a precaution against accidents, and that Wilkes was crying for assistance through the night; he himself being in an advanced state of prostration, the barbarity of the proceeding cannot bo too severely condemned. Solitary confinement for criminals is now condemned. Solit»ry confinement with a dying mao, who,

if not a maniac, bod at least to be secured as a precaution, is a great deal worse. The wonder to us, if these things be true, is not that one died but that one lived, tf it were considered that the wardsman was too overworked, os undoubtedly he was, to watch these men it night, or at least to sleep in the next room, the Committee should have at once encaged a night-watcher for the purpose. Wo have not done here, tin Saturday, without notice to any minister of religion, three of whom were in Naseby, M‘Master was allowed to die. It is fair to say that the medical attendance was regular, and that, in our opinion, beyond unremitting attention in nursing—the most powerful restorative procurable everything that skill could do was done by the Hospital Surgeon to recover a case hopeless from the first. The deceased man lay Sunday, and on Monday morning about ten. o'clock the undertaker—uncertain what denomination M‘Master belonged to- an assistant, and the‘driver of the vehicle, took the body away and buried it in the paupers’ corner of the cemetery. Whether the assistant whose state of sobriety was so questionable as to make it inadvisable to allow of his assistance in lowering the body,, and the driver were the two respectable householders who are to sign the certificate in accordance with the Act, in the place of a minister of religion, we have yet to see, as, up to yesterday, no certificate or other document could be found in the hands of the Registrar other than the medical certificate, although the body has been buried three days. We understand that on Sunday the deceased’s brother-in-law was informed of his demise. The duty of decent interment was not the brother-in-law’s but was that of the Hospital Committee. By whose order was the deceased carted away as carrion ? What record is there of the dead man beyond his name ? What was done in bis lifetime, and his death was not sudden, to provide that if it were necessary for him to make arrangements legal or other he should have at least the opportunity ? What attempt was made to see that the spiritual consolation or advice that the best of men eagerly seek for in their day of last weakness was proffered? These few questions and others must be answered; The Visiting Committee if too scared to do their duty by fear of the report, “fever in the Hospital,” should have taken care to make sure what was necessary and possible for the comfort of the stricken men was being provided. As it is they have miserably failed in their duty, and have brought discredit on the fair fame of our Hospital, which can only he removed by the fullest enquiry. Let M‘Master’s life be as worthless as it may have been—Who shall cast the first stone ? It is to be hoped that such an occurrence will never take place again. If we can help it it never shall. When it is remembered how constantly our clergy are travelling, and how rare it is for dangerous cases to he brought in to the Hospital, there is no excuse for all want of notification in this case, or system to supply it. In no ease should a pauper patient or other be buried without religious ceremonial, unless the minister of the church to which the deceased belonged refused to do his duty. In such a case—which could not occur in Naseby—the Hospital Committee should see to it that the funeral should be witnessed by their officers or by some of their own number.