Sanitation -- Cuba -- Havana; Sanitation -- Panama; Yellow fever -- Cuba -- Havana
The wife as she saw death approaching determined, if possible,
herself to contract the dread disease. I heard her appeal to her
husband in most moving terms not to die and leave her alone. She was
with her husband at the moment of his death, and held him in her arms
at the time. One who is familiar with a deathbed scene from yellow
fever can appreciate what this means. It is a very gruesome death,
and the young wife was covered with “vomito negro.”
I felt myself more or less responsible, and thought that she was
going into the jaws of death by this kind of exposure. I therefore
called for the assistance of one of the nurses, and used some force
in getting her into the next room. She at first reproached me, but
as soon as we got her into the adjoining room she seemed at once to
regain her mental balance, spoke rationally to Mrs. Gorgas, and asked
me to arrange the details so that she could take her husband’s body
with her when she sailed on the next vessel for the United States.
Mrs. Gorgas and I walked with her to her room and gave certain
directions with regard to her care and comfort for the night. She
asked me for a sleeping dose which she might take in case she was
unable to sleep. I recollect that I put this up in such quantity that
she could not hurt herself even if she took it all. The rooms were
separated by very thin wooden partitions, and she asked about the
location of persons in the adjoining rooms.
About two A. M. Mrs. Gorgas and I went to our quarters. We had been
home just a short time when I was aroused by a hurried step and a
knock at the door. I found it was a messenger summoning me to the
hospital, with the information that the lady had killed herself.
When the door of her room was forced, we entered and found our
friend apparently in a peaceful, quiet sleep. One arm had dropped
naturally to the side, and the right arm was lying across the chest,
the hand still holding the pistol with which she had killed herself.
The appearance was exactly that of a piece of marble. She had shot
herself behind the ear, and the hemorrhage had been so sharp that
the body was entirely blanched. From where we stood the hemorrhage
did not show. She had concealed a pistol in her trunk which she had
procured in the United States at the time she started for Havana.
She had placed fresh clothing on a chair by the bedside, apparently
with the intention of being robed in it after death.
In looking back I could see various things in her actions and
conversation that indicated the intention of taking her life. At
other times she had entirely forgotten this, and was preparing for
her sad future in this life. She had apparently been dazed by her
grief and was temporarily unbalanced, unable for any length of time
to follow in her mind any definite plan of action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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