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101
but simply that it has happened that in many cases where our
patients have died this year there have been no young contacts.
Others with such contacts have perhaps died in hospital, and the
usual proportion has refused to agree to part with the children.
We think of one case in particular where the father lay dying
at home for months under poor and bad conditions ; repeated
efforts were made to induce the parents to allow the children to
be boarded out, without success. Seven months later one of the
children, a girl aged 13 years, was notified as suffering from
pulmonary tuberculosis. She was sent away for treatment
immediately, but is now seriously ill, and it is considered very
doubtful if she will recover. An example such as this is a
complete justification of the scheme.
In cases where the Council's scheme could not be applied,
three children have been boarded out through the United Services
Fund, and a number have been placed in the Guardians' homes,
the reason generally being that the mothers would otherwise
have been unable to go away for sanatorium treatment.
A pleasing part of Care Committee work this year has been
the further successful development of our Handicraft class which
we now consider to be firmly established. Most of our work is
sheer tragedy. Amongst it the class stands out as a gleam of
sunshine heartening patients and workers alike. A separate
report will be found elsewhere and we trust our readers will not
miss it.
A very brief outline of a few of the cases helped through the
Committee this year may be of interest:—
(1) Patient, a married man with one child, returned from a
course of treatment. Owing to lack of accommodation he was
obliged to continue to share a bedroom with his wife and child,
space would not allow for the erection of a separate bed for him.
A little later on an extra room became available which however
was useless to our patient unless we could provide him with bed
and bedding. This was obtained for him.
(2) A young patient, recommended for sanatorium treatment,
was visited. It was observed that the mother was in an extremely
bad state of health and was quite unfitted for either home duties