THE HOSPITAL

by Jan de Hartog ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 1964

Charity hospital or charnel house? In Houston, Texas, the ""richest city in the world,"" J.D. as it is known (Jefferson Davis) is a City-Country institution, ibid a political football without the support of either, used as a dump for ""Negroes and poor white trash."" The de Hartogs moved to Houston, and through Mrs. de Hartog's interest in becoming a Women in Yellow there, Jan de Hartog secured entry-- hard to do-- as an orderly in the Emergency Room. From his first admission, there are scenes of suppurating fifth and neglect: a women on the operating table, as an ambulance driver tries to get twenty dollars out of her; a Negro girl hemorrhaging in the hall; patients littered in every room along with cigarette butts; other lying in soiled, Wet beds while their IV bottles run dry. This then is the story of Jan de Hartog's fight (along with a few fellow Quakers) to secure attention for still another shame of the cities, to raise a Memory Fund, and finally, successfully, to get volunteer help into the hospital which was (under) staffed by Baylor University. There are also some very moving scenes involving two or three of the nurses who became casualties of the overworked conditions... While some of his book slackens in the mid section involved with the details of his local crusade, much of it is unforgettable, almost unbelievable. How about the patient who went A.W.O.L. from the psychiatric ward and was found two weeks later in the Broom Closet? Mr. de Hartog's account, along with its snakepit shock reaction, has an inspiration-cum indignation appeal, a commitment to humanity which many readers have followed all the way to a little village in Laos and another in Lambarene.

Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: theneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION