Doctor Appeals To State Health Board

• Dr. A. L. Hart, of Gardiner, wrote to the State Board of Health about the hardships that the lower Umpqua section is facing because of the influenza epidemic. Hart has influenza himself and is afraid he won’t be able to stave off a serious epidemic. • Dr. Hart (in letter): “I am making this one last appeal for an investigation if need be, but for action most of all, before it is for all time too late. It is too much to ask us to put up with things as they are any longer. Quarantine that amounts to something more than a scrap of paper nailed to a wall; a doctor to relieve the intolerable pressure of the work, and nurses to take care of the worst cases, are what we need. In desperation I am writing this letter to the state board, since the county board ignores our plight.”• Dr. Hart sent a copy of his letter to The Oregonian. • Dr. Hart has heard that there are volunteer nurses in Portland and he requests that they and at least one more doctor come to Gardiner. • Dr. Hart: “The cases are both more numerous and much more severe at present than ever before. The first death occurred November 26. Tonight I have seen at least two patients who are almost surely destined to a fatal outcome. There are many others who are very ill and the infection is spreading rapidly, especially in Reedsport.”• Dr. Hart claims that the quarantines he ordered in Gardiner and Reedsport were ignored. Both are unincorporated areas and he struggled to enforce the restrictions. • Dr. Hart: “People in other parts of the state have little idea what conditions obtain down here. There is not a trained nurse in this whole valley. There is no other physician for 20 miles north, 30 miles south or for 40 miles east. The greater part of the inhabitants outside of Gardiner itself live in small floating houses on the water’s edge. There are no sanitary arrangements, no sewage systems outside of Gardiner.”• Dr. Hart: “Up to the present date I have personally attended 68 cases in all. Since November 13 I have worked night and day, trying in vain to give these people proper medical attention. I can get no one to care for the patients, and in a number of families all are sick in bed, with absolutely no one to give them any care whatever. In spite of all I can do the epidemic is spreading.”• Dr. Seeley says he will try to send an inspector to Gardiner. He will ask the Red Cross to send a nurse. • The State Health Office relies on county health officers to handle problems like the one Dr. Hart communicated. • Conditions in parts of southeastern Oregon are as equally bad as in the southern Umpqua Valley. Physicians are scarce and spread out and the epidemic is just as severe. Within the past 24 hours the Red Cross has been asked to send nurses to Crane and Denio in response to appeals like Dr. Hart’s.Newspaper article