Army Pressing Investigation of Hospital Facilities, 1951

“Army Hospitals Said Run in Cold Blooded Manner,” from the Statesville Landmark, May 3, 1951

Washington, May 2—The army is pressing a sweeping investigation of its hospital facilities after a series of incidents that included two fatalities. There is a possibility that some military patients may be sent to civilian hospitals.

However, one army spokesman has said that many civilian hospitals apparently do not know that they can accept military patients and be paid by the government.

The army wants to know why Private Arthur Credighton (of Yazoo City, Mississippi) was refused admittance at Los Angeles County General Hospital last week. The soldier died on his way to the nearest military hospital 70 miles away.

The county superintendent of charities in Los Angeles General Hospital—Arthur Wills—says that usually military cases are not accepted. He went on…”It takes us more than a year to get paid.”

A nine-month-old boy—James Ballenger—died of influenza. His father, Sergeant Dale Ballenger, said he had been told to stand and wait with the baby until a line of soldiers had been treated. That was at the Fort MacArthur infirmary in Los Angeles.

The commandant of Fort MacArthur—Colonel Sidney Dunn—said: “The trouble is that military enlistments are increasing, while medical facilities are being cut back.”