A CASE FOR INQUIRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3315, 26 September 1917, Page 24

A CASE FOR INQUIRY.

(Otago Daily Times, .September 25.) Tho caso of James Gapstick, whose death from hemorrhage of the lungis was the subject of an inquest on Monday, is one that merits further investigation. The history of it, if we have been correctly informed, is the sad history of a sufferer from tuberculosis in an acute form. The evidence at the inqucist showed that the deceased man was tor about two years an inmate of the Cromwell . Hospital, from which he was discharged last month. He is said to have had two attacks of hemorrhage while he was in that hospital. What Bpecial facilities exist at tho iPromwell Hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis we do.not know, nor do we know how he came to be discharged. Alter he had been discharged he was actually passed as fit for military service—how this came about must be one of the unexplained mysteries of the system of medical examination lor military purposes —and he left Central Otago as a member of a draft of rehitorcements tor Trentham. Apparently the authorities at the Cromwell Hospital, apprehensive lest his presence in the draft ishould be a source of danger to the other recruits, intervened, with the result, we are informed, that upon their ■ representations he was put oftv the train at Ranfurly. Doming on to Duncdm he secured accommodation at a local hotel and procured employment in a factory, in which he was engaged tor about three weeks up to the time of the fatul seizure on Saturday last. If this be an accurate history of the case, it would seem that this unfortunate man was during tho last three weeks 'of his life, when he was acutely consumptive and a potential source of infection, moving about among unsuspecting people in tho hotel in which he was living and in the factory in which he was working. If his condition had been realised, he would, in all probability, not have been able to secure either accommodation or employment, and another forcible illustration would have been afforded of the pitiful plight of the incurable sufferer. In the meantime, we are somowhat curious to know of the circumstances under which he left the Cromwell Hospital and also to know how he came to be passed fit for military eervioe.