H. -19b

XLII

APPENDIX B. THE CASE OF PRIVATE ARCHIBALD BADGER, OF CHRISTCHURCH. Private Badger went on sick-parade on Tuesday, the 22nd June, and again on Wednesday, the 23rd, when he was sent into hospital. He was to have come out on the 28th on sick-leave, but on that day he had a relapse. On. the Ist July a telegram was received by his relatives stating that he was dangerously ill. His mother arrived on the 2nd, but he was then unconscious, and had been so for two or three days. He died on the 4th July. The brother stated that he considered that Private Badger was treated in the hospital with "cruelly criminal negligence." He based this charge mainly on information derived from Private Roy Glen. Private Glen's evidence, as given to us, consists of some details which, in our opinion, altogether fail to establish such a charge as that made. Other details spoken of by the brother were founded on hearsay and inference, and are contradicted by Sergeant Badger and by the doctor. But accepting the details of Private Badger's experiences as true, they were such as appear to have been incidental to the nature of the hospital accommodation and the circumstances of the time, such as being without, a bedstead and the want of attention by orderlies before the nurses arrived; but in our judgment these are quite insufficient to warrant the allegation made. In any event, the brother qualified the charge as to the period subsequent to the mother arriving, because he states in his evidence, " I would like to say that the nurses were most kind during the three days my mother was here, and also the medical staff, and the Minister of Public Health gave instructions that no expense was to be spared." We would briefly refer to the evidence. Olen says he was for a time at the kiosk. He had a bed on the floor next to Badger. Glen left on Tuesday, the 29th, and says that Badger did not feel very well on the Monday. "He was shivering, and got another relapse of influenza. When I was discharged I went over to him, and he was very bad, but he recognized me. I left on the Tuesday night. He looked very ill when I last saw him, and when I got to Christchurch I told Mrs. Badger and she wired up." As regards this evidence, Sergeant Badger, of the Field Ambulance, who joined on the 28th June—struck by the similarity of name, though he was not connected—says that he spoke to him and took a special interest in him, and that he was quite coherent; but about 8.30 on the morning of Wednesday, the 29th, seemed to collapse suddenly. He states that Dr. Ferguson visited Private Badger frequently from the Tuesday to the Thursday, when Private Badger was removed to the trainers' quarters. Dr. Ferguson says that when Private Badger came into hospital, with the exception of his temperature, which was 1014, he showed no dangerous symptoms. " I diagnosed it as ordinary influenza with a certain amount of feverish symptoms. The disease ran on in the usual way till the fourth or fifth day, I cannot say which, and his temperature had dropped to normal. I distinctly remember seeing him, and seeing that he was able to get out of bed and go out. He stood up in line with a number of others for examination. I had a long row to go round, and I purposely used to let the men stand easy while I went round the lines in order to test them and see I did not make a mistake, so I let them stand on their legs a little while. When I got to the end of the lines Sister Brandon told me Badger had had a rigor—a shivering fit—and I ordered him to be kept in bed with hot bottles. I saw him several times that day and the next day, and he seemed to be going backwards." On Thursday, the Ist July, Badger was removed to the trainers' quarters so as to be near the doctor's room. "As soon as I was satisfied there was any danger I telegraphed to his people. . . . Badger had symptoms of cerebral haemorrhage with certain facial paralysis." The doctor further says that " the nursing could not have been better. The sister in charge was a most magnificent nurse—one cannot speak too well of her attention."

THE CASE OF PRIVATES POLLARD AND FORDHAM. Pollard and Fordbam were transferred " as convalescents with colds and slight bronchial trouble " from Kaiwarra to Berhampore. Dr. Harrison was then in charge. On Friday, the 25th June, 1915, Sister Keith was head nurse, and under her were Sisters Hanna and Faram. While at Berhampore the patients were kept in bed. They were accommodated in one of the main wards, where there were six other patients. Their colds developed into bronchial septic pneumonia, and on the following Friday they died there.