Raid on a Fever Hospital.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 May 1910, Page 4

Raid on a Fever Hospital.

GATES STOR.UEI) BY CROWD OF ANGRY PARENTS. Remarkable scenes at a fevor hospital formed the subject of anxibufl discussion at a recent meeting of the health committee of the Crewe (England) Town Council. A serious epidemic of dipthom recently broke out in the town, and the isolation hospital is crowded with children who have been stricken down. The decision of ithe authorities to forbid visiting uy relatives caused great reseaitment, and one Sunday afternoon nearlj two hundred angry fathers and mothers stormed the institution. They demanded admission, and when this was refused they becamo violent. Tlio gates were locked on the crowd, who then attempted to force an entry. The police were called, and tried to pacify the angry gathering. The parents, however, declined to disperse. The men stood with their backs to the wall, and more than a dozen women, climbing oil their husbands' shoulders, managed to scramble into the hospital grounds. They found their way to the diphtheria ward, and on obtaining a glimpse of their suffering children through the windows refused to go away. The excited parents threatened to

break the windows if .they were not admitted, and declared their intension of visiting the premises of the chairman of the helath committee. Eventually somo of thorn had (to bo removed from tho institution. They described the hospital as a "zoo." I.t has beero the custom to allow 'the parents to visit .the institution an dsoe their children through tho window once a week, but this was discontinued, on the ground that it was detrimental to tho recovery of the patients. Tn many cases it was proved (that seeing their mothers and fathers' •through tho glass excited tho children to such an extent thalt their' illness almost proved fatal. The authorities have now decided •that tho gates s'hall not he opened to the relatives, but "bulletins will be posted in tlie town daily 'announcing tho condition of the .pa/fcients. Fifteon deaths have taken place since the epidemic sftaritod.