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THE PRESIDENT-In consequence of that letter, what did you do?—I saw you the following morning, and no removal took place.
Mr. THOMSON-Did the patient object to the removal or was it only the Directors? --The patient objected to being transferred. The man was suffering from a compound fracture of the left wrist accompanied by hemorrhage and a fracture of the right fore-arm. Mr. WHITEHEAD-Had you any conversation with the patient ?-Yes; through an interpreter I explained the desirability for the transfer. He did not agree to the removal. The interpreter goes round with me. If the patient had been willing to go, I would not have reported the case.
He continued in the Tung Wa Hospital ?—Yes.
What happened to him? Can you give us the history of the case ?-He was dis- charged on 7th January with a stiffened left wrist.
Dr. Ho KAI-There was a case where a man was taken to the Government Civil Hospital and an amputation made ?—Yes.
And I understand one of the Chinese newspapers sent a reporter to interview the man, who expressed his unwillingness to go to the Civil Hospital but was taken there by force ?-Yes.
It was found necessary that in order to save the man's life his leg should be amputated. The man is still in the Hospital, and he tells us he is very grateful that he was taken to the Civil Hospital. He said he would sooner be alive with one leg than dead with two. The reporter did interview him, but it is difficult to say whether what was reported is really what the man stated. He is now convalescent.
That if a patient is in
THE PRESIDENT-I understand your point of view is this: the Tung Wa Hospital, and if in the opinion of the Colonial Surgeon his stay there is likely to endanger his life, he should be removed to the Civil Hospital even if the patient himself is unwilling ?-Yes. The patient is often not in a position to form a decision in the matter.
Since this case has there been any transfers from the Tung Wa Hospital to the Civil Hospital ?-No; except some that voluntarily requested to be transferred. There have been no surgical cases since then transferred by order of the Governor.
Have there been many cases in which the patients voluntarily asked to be removed? -Roughly speaking, about a dozen or so.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-Since this case of opposition to the transfer, have there been any other cases which it would have been desirable to have transferred ?—Numbers of serious cases. I have reported them to the Governor. Some have died, and I have reported the deaths.
Have you any means to show how many cases have resulted in death which should See Appen have been transferred since that opposition ?—I have a note of two or three. I could give the exact number if I go through the records. There is a letter of 9th November, 1895, referring to the admission into the Tung Wa of three surgical cases—a gun- shot wound to the left arm, gangrene of the left leg, and a sloughing wound of the penis. The Committee would not allow them to be removed or the wounds to be dressed by me. I reported when the man suffering from gangrene died from septicemia. On the 12th November, the Colonial Secretary asked me if the patients objected to be removed, and I replied that they wanted only Chinese doctors to attend them; that one case died on the previous day and another was very ill, and that unless the abscess was opened he would probably die. The man had an enormous abscess in the calf of the leg; a small incision-a prick even-would probably have saved his life, and they would not allow it to be done. He died on the 22nd November, 1895. I have reported every case of severe surgical injury where it has been a source of danger to the patient to remain there or where septicemia has developed after the patient has been taken to the native hospital.
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