SENT TO THE HOSPITAL TO DIE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 271, 12 May 1875, Page 2

SENT TO THE HOSPITAL TO DIE.

That scenes similar to that recently witnessed in our own grave yard, occur in other places, and in much larger communities than our own, is a painfully evident fact. We reprint from the Wanganni Chronicle, the circumstances attending the illness, and death of a young man in the Wanganui hospital, some of which come very near to our own door. Substitute “ Turner ” for “ Nairn,” and the picture is complete: —

“The circumstances surrounding the last moments of a young man who died in the hospital lately, are very painful and not over creditable. The young man was a stranger in the place—had no relations here, and but few friends. He had been for some time in ill health, but was sufficiently well to permit of his accepting an engagement in a business house in town, which, however, he never filled, as he gradually became worse, and within a few days of the date upon which he was to have entered upon his duties he was in his grave. He was lodging in a hotel in town, but when it became evident that he was rapidly sinking, the medical gentleman who was attending him applied for his admission to the Hospital. The Chairman of the Hospital Committee, to whom application was made, declined to accede to the request unless the certificate of the Hospital medical attendant was procured, as this was the course laid down by the Committee to be pursued in all except urgent cases, such as accident. The doctor argued that the case in point was an urgent one, as the sick man's life was not worth an hour’s purchase, and it was clear that he could not get the attention in the hotel that he would in the Hospital. Eventually, as Dr. Earle’s certificate could not be obtained, in consequence of his absence from town, the sufferer was brought down the stairs of the hotel and carried to the Hospital, where he was admitted on the doctor representing that he had the certificate in his possession. After the patient’s admittance, no certificate being produced, a scene occurred between the keeper and the doctor over the dying man, whose agony of body was so intense that he prayed to be left alone to die. As far as we have been able to ascertain, we believe the above to be a plain statement of the facts of this case. It does not appear to' us that much was to be gained by removing the sufferer, when he was believed to be past recovery, and the attendance he would be likely to receive at the Hospital could hardly be an improvement on that he received where he was, when it is conconsidered that there is only a man and his wife to attend on all the patients. Altogether, as we have said, the circumstances surrounding this case are very painful and not very creditable.” In commenting on the above a writer in the same journal observes: —

“Tom Hood’s most pathetic allusions to the demise of the unknown, the unfortunate, the stranger, and the friendless, have been so unmercifully used, abused and garbled, that I will not risk a possible disturbance of his names by unworthily or profanely quoting his sentiments. The temptation to do so, however, is strong, and the credit is mine for resisting. I know of no other words that would so accurately convey the idea which I wish to impart: “ Over the cold ” . No, I will not allow myself. I am victor still. Who saw poor Nairn die ? Who watched his spirit take its flight? Like many another alien whose dust mingles with its mother earth in the strangers’ corner in our cemetery, he is now at rest, awaiting the trumpet’s call. The echoes were importunate concerning the latter end of the poor soul whom “ nobody owned." Ah 1 there I am. I humiliate myself, nor will again offend. These echoes will not be at rest. They keep murmuring audibly, “ May my last end be not like his.” “ He died, and none but strangers came To close o’er him the grave.” The hospital was his last home on earth. From its walls the echoes reached me, borne wailing on the night wind, “All alone 1 All alone I” I had very strange dreams that night. Eugene Aram is not a nice book to entertain one’s self with at the witching hour. Conscience must have been a pleasant companion for the fourteen years during which he held converse with it. “ Only a common man, plenty more like him,” was the heartless exclamation of a ruffian, when the charred remains of a fellow creature, whose life had been sacrificed at the shrine of reckless greed, and cruel disregard of the sacredness of human life, was exhumed from amid the smouldering ruins which the murderer contemplated so callously. The sentiment oft reaches me in an echo yet. Funeral reform is a popular topic : why not begin a step before and suggest a possible hospital reform, where such is necessary ? Cremation is discussed at the meetings of philosophical societies, yet in how many centres the management of those institutions ostensibly inaugurated for the relief of the afflicted and the indigent, and the conduct or capability of the responsible cushdians are soldi m referred to or examined into. Have all our measures a post mor’im tendency, to the exclusion of the welfare of the living ? In some distant land pi or Nairn’s untimely end, “unwept, uminorel, and unsung,” will cause bitter anguish when the usual 0.P.5.0. document in the bulky envelope reaches the mourning ones from the office of the Curator of Intestate Estates, and in the customary terse phraseology conveys the sad tidings. The fear of death in the hospital, with its usual concomitants, will be a dread spectre to many a friendless one who feels his end approaching, with no hand of kindred to smooth his pillow. Many exhibit a strong prejudice against being sent to an hospital. ‘ Let me die where I am,’ they plead tearfully, ‘don’t take me to the hospital.’ ”