IRATE NURSES

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 December 1934, Page 11

IRATE NURSES

DUCK YARDMAN IN BATH. SYDNEY, December 17. Ten nurses of the Echuca District Hospital seized Thomas Adams, aged about 40, a hospital yardman, and ducked him in a bath of hot water. The matter will be inquired into at a meeting of the hospital board on Monday night. The nurses considered that they had a grievance against Adams, and they laid plans to duck him in the absence of the matron. While Adams was having tea in the kitchen of the hospital they quietly entered by two doors and surrounded the table. One of them was carrying a pair of shackles, consisting of links of chain joined by stout rope, used for shackling refractory male patients. Suddenly the ten women pounced on Adams, overpowered him, and shackled his ankles. Despite furious struggles Adams was carried to the bathroom, where the bath was three-quarters _ full of hot water. Throwing him into the bath, they ran away, while Adams, with water streaming from his clothes, scrambled out. Adams promptly visited his solicitor, and made a full statement of the occurrence. Adams, who is a married man, formerly took a leading part in the affairs of the Echuca branch of the Salvation Army, and he is still a regular attendant at their meetings. Expressing indignation at the nurses’ attack, Adams said yesterday that, if tlio nurses considered they had a grievance, they should have made complaints to the hospital authorities instead of taking the law into their own hands. Three weeks previously he had been ill.

‘‘AMICABLE SETTLEMENT.'' MELBOURNE, December IS. The board of management of the Echuca District Hospital met to-night, to inquire into the circumstances in which Thomas Adams, a yardman in the hospital, was ducked in a bath by ten nurses. The inquiry was held in camera. After a discussion, which lasted for about two hours, the board issued the following statement:—“An amicable settlement having been arrived at between the parties, the board deems it inadvisable to proceed further with the inquiry.”