July 24, 1914
EDELSON FAST STILL ON.
Prisoner Taken to hospital Preparatory to Forcible Feeding.
When Becky Edelson gave no sign of yielding when she passed the eightieth hour of her hunger strike yesterday afternoon, the Workhouse officials removed her to the Blackwells Island Hospital, so that surgeons might keep a closer watch on her heart and be ready to feed her forcibly on the first indication of collapse.
It was feared that fever, due to refusal to drink, might set in, and it was desired to start the forcible feeding in time to stop it.
The bed to which Miss Edelson was assigned was built for fractious prisoners who might need to be forcibly fed. Devices to hold a prisoner are a part of the bed, and the bed frame may be tilted so that a prisoner strapped to it is in the best position to receive food through a tube.
Miss Edelson passed the eighty-fourth hungry hour at midnight last night. Dr. Anna Hubert, who watched Miss Edelson, reported to Commissioner Davis that she was in fine condition and showed no signs of collapse. Dr. Hubert thought that Miss Edelson would not again suffer from acute hunger for another forty-eight hours. Commissioner Davis plans to let her fast six days.
Alexander Berkman tried to send Dr. A.L. Goldwater, a brother of Health Commissioner Goldwater, to the Workhouse yesterday to examine Miss Edelson "on behalf of her friends."
Commissioner Davis refused to let anyone representing Berkman visit Miss Edelson. She notified Dr. Goldwater that the Department of Correction medical staff was quite sufficient, and that if other surgeons should be needed, the Health Department would be asked to furnish them.
One protest against forcible feeding reached Commissioner Davis yesterday; a letter from Mrs. Bedford Fenwick, an official of the International Council of Nurses. The letter inclosed many clippings depicting the "scandal" of forcible feeding in England.
No comments:
Post a Comment