Annual report of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital : 1917.

  • Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital : 1917. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    138/176 (page 130)
    We feel more and more convinced, that in spite of the satisfaction it gives to do for older people, that those patients between twelve and forty years, with the em¬ phasis on those under twenty, are the ones who will best repay our efforts. The Children’s Hospital is giving close attention to its care of cardiac disease, and of its contribu¬ tory causes, chorea, rheumatism, etc., and as the children below twelve years go to their Out-Patient Department, and as those above twelve years come to ours, it would seem wise to form some definite plan of cooperation which would be of benefit to the patients of both hospitals, and enable those patients to be followed up during the most important period of their lives. A great deal more visiting in the homes and schools could be done, and in most cases, outside of the impres¬ sion that the physician makes on the child and its parents, without which nothing can be accomplished, visiting not only gives a knowledge of home and school condition, but is an important factor in keeping the patient up to a regular attendance at the class. Of the forty-six patients still left in our care at the beginning of 1917, thirteen have re-entered the house, six because of cardiac decompensation, two because of probable rheumatism and two for tonsillectomy. There have been nine deaths among these forty-six patients, the ages of those having died ranging from fifteen to forty years. Two who had re-entered the house died there, four have died at home and two others at the Carney and Robert Breck Brigham Hospitals, respec¬ tively. The ninth death was that of a girl of fifteen who had come to the Out-Door Department too late for any¬ thing to be accomplished, and who died in the house later of acute pericarditis. Among the nine patients who have died there was one, a Scotchman, who had been a mem¬ ber of the class almost from its beginning. I am sure that the help received from Dr. Denny was of inestimable