A WAIMATE HOSPITAL EPISODE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2832, 22 April 1882, Page 2

A WAIMATE HOSPITAL EPISODE.

On Sunday last a girl, Lucy Mines, died at this Institution, of typhoid fever, Whereupon a local practitioner, Dr Stackpoole, hurried to the “ Waimate Times” and poured into the editor’s car a string of charges against the hospital staff, making out in fact something like a general charge of murder against the staff in general. Dr Chilton, the efficient and spirited gentleman who presides over the Institution, hearing of this, immediately withdrew the certificate of death he had given, and demanded a full enquiry into the circumstances of the case, a move for which Dr Stackpoole was evidently unprepared. The result was a full investigation by the Hospital Committee. The evidence from first to last was in favor of the staff, and if anything could possibly have raised Dr Chilton in the estimation of the public, this enquiry proved the very thing to do it. We highly esteem this gentleman, not merely as a practitioner, but still more as one who has had the courage to take the bull by the horns and clear himself of any unjust imputations, This is the resolution adopted by the Hospital Committee: —“ That, after a full enquiry into the treatment of the late daughter of N. Mines in the Waimate Hospital, this Committee is of opinion that no blame can be attached to the Hospital Surgeon nor to any member of the staff, and that the utmost care appears to have been taken of the patient. The Committee also very much regrets that statements should have been made which have not been substantiated.”