HOW THE HAWTHORNE HOSPITAL STAFF WORKED

Hawthorne maintains an emergency hospital for the employees which, except in size, is the most perfectly equipped in Chicago. A complete description of it would take several pages, and must wait for a later issue of the News. The present account merely describes the work done by the staff subsequent to the Eastland catastrophe.

The resident physician is Doctor W. A. Lucas, and Mrs. M. C. Moeller is superintending nurse with a staff of seven graduate nurses under her.

On the morning of the 24th, Dr. Lucas started for the Theodore Roosevelt, on which he was going out to Michigan City to take charge of the hospital tent that was to be maintained at the picnic. He was within a block of the docks when the Eastland capsized, and hearing the screams of the passengers, and realizing that some serious accident had occurred, he started to run for the dock, but so quickly did the boat go that it had turned completely over by the time he arrived. He managed to get on the boat and at once went to work helping to pull people through the port-holes, and working over those who were unconscious.

Mrs. Mowller, who had not planned to go to the picnic, got word of the catastrophe over the telephone at her home about eight o'clock. Inside of ten minutes she had dressed, telephoned one of her nurses, and was on her way to the dock. She and the other nurse, Miss Wilcox, had literally to force their way through the police lines, and finally succeeded in getting up the side of the boat, where they joined Dr. Lucas.

The pulmotors did not arrive until 10 o'clock. When they did get there, Mrs. Moeller helped operate one until about eleven o'clock. By then, she saw that she would be more needed at the hospital than on the docks, so left with Dr. Lucas and returned to Hawthorne.

Dr. Lucas tried to get back to the boat, but could not get through the police lines. He finally managed to get permission to pass after appealing to Dr. Carter, the police surgeon. Dr. Lucas immediately went to the Acting Mayor, who was at the dock, and obtained authority for the Western Electric relief workers to pass through the lines without hindrance. He remained on the boat most of the day.

Meanwhile the hospital was worked to its fullest capacity to care for survivors who were suffering from injury or shock. Although Hawthorne is several miles from the scene of the disaster, the staff had all it could do. Most of the employees line near the Works, and all who could be moved were taken to their homes as soon as possible. Slight injuries were given temporary dressings downtown, and the patients were immediately taken to the Hawthorne hospital in automobiles, to receive more thorough treatment. These patients report to the hospital daily. The Hawthorne nurses also went the round of the city hospitals, in order to locate Eastland victims and to arrange for their transfer as soon as advisable. Several cases of injury and shock that were not progressing favorable under local treatment were transferred bodily to the Hawthorne hospital, where the patients remained until they recoverd. The hospital has six beds and these were all occupied for a time.

The Chicago River is very dirty and it was feared that those who had swallowed any of the water might contract typhoid fever. Consequently the Chicago Health Department urged all Eastland survivors to be inoculated with typhoid antitoxin. During the three days following the disaster the Hawthorne hospital vaccinated more than two hundred (200) people against typhoid.

All of the services described above were, of course, rendered to any and all Eastland survivors, regardless of whether or not they were Western Electric employees.

When the hospital was visited on Wednesday, July 28th, none of the staff had left the building since the day of the accident. They had had about five hours' sleep apiece since Saturday. Yet none of them seemed to think that they had done anything unusual. "Why shouldn't we do this work?" asked Doctor Lucas. "It's our job. If there's any credit coming it's due to the entire Western Electric organization. They're wonderful!"

"There is one girl, though" he added, "who deserves all the credit that anyone can give her, and that's Miss Repa, one of our nurses. That girls did a day's work that ought not to be forgotten. If you want to talk about the hospital, get her story."

The News did get Miss Repa's story. It appears on another page.

IN MEMORIAM - JULY 24, 1915
The day, whose dawning brought a surge of joy
To gladdened men and care-free maids, is done.
And in the blackened shadow of despair,
A night too dark for gleams of light to pierce,
Is plunged a people mourning for its own
Engulfed within the stilly sea that marks
The end of life.

But that the dead may live,
The living must achieve the monument
Begun by they who are no more, and who
Are best remembered, truly, not by stones
That mark an earthly rest, but in the hearts
And by the deeds of those that stay to do
The world's great works. 'Tis so that honor
May be done to all whose ended lives
Brought each a meed of joy to some and in
Whose passing there is brought a deeper sorrow
Than a people's suffering heart can bear.
No great or noble cause had called our brothers
And our sisters to their end, yet must
Our consolation be the knowledge gained
That an Omniscient Being had decreed
Their span of life to be complete and taken
These, His children, to their lasting peace.

W.A. Wolff
New York, July 28, 1915.