Conference of Officers in Charge of Government Hospitals Serving Veterans of the World War
History
Conference of Officers in Charge of Government Hospitals Serving Veterans of the World War
Medicine, Military; Military hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Veterans -- Medical care -- United States
I have some fifty War Risk patients at my Sanitorium. I have known them
for three years. I know them all by name. They were kicked out from
Sanitorium to Sanitorium. They came down to Stanton. I went there on the
first of July and no man has asked for his transfer or discharge. I
suppose there is less turn-over of t.b. patients at any place than at
Fort Stanton, where there is no entertainment. These men can go
anywhere. We have a 30,000 or 40,000 acre farm. We try to get these men
interested in the different things in the Sanitorium. On Christmas we
let the men arrange the Christmas trees. They amuse themselves down
there. The men trap quite a number of wild animals, bob cats, etc. and
they are interested in the place we have, which is close to nature. You
would be surprised how little amusement you need for entertainment if
you get away from it. You have got to control these men and direct them
every minute in the day. You have got to give them a task. Have their
hours for rest; their hours for exercise. It is up to you who are
running Sanitoriums to entertain your men. You might lecture to them;
that is entertainment; but don’t have them twice a week or three times a
week. Once in a great while the men are interested in the study of their
disease. Don’t speak to them in scientific terms, let them understand
the disease. They say in the curing of tuberculosis it depends more upon
what a man has from his neck up than what he has from the neck down.
Impress upon them that they have got to live a careful life. Keep people
out who want to entertain them. Your men will be just as well and better
satisfied with little entertainment if you keep them busy all day long.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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