May
2, 1903 – Naked, delirious, his system ridden with smallpox,
James Judge was found at dawn on the rear porch of a residence in St. Louis
Park, Minn. His condition and presence there were due to the inattention to
their duties of attendants at the quarantine hospital, who slumbered peacefully
while the man, whose condition indicated that he was close to death, wrapped an
overcoat about his bare limbs and plunged out into a snowstorm. He wandered
aimlessly until, with bleeding feet and body, blue with cold, he staggered into
the storm shed of the house opposite the one where he was discovered.
Smallpox Victim1
The master of the latter domicile, upon finding the shivering form on his doorstep, reached the right conclusion immediately—that he had escaped from the quarantine hospital and telephoned that institution. A sleepy voice at the other end of the line, however, informed him that everything was as usual there and that no one had escaped from the establishment.
Meanwhile the quivering, bleeding, disease-wrecked victim was locked in a rear room of the residence. While the members of the household were planning what course to pursue, the ambulance from the quarantine hospital drove up and the driver announced the fact that those in charge of the hospital had, upon investigation, discovered the absence of a patient.
Judge’s chances of recovery are lessened almost to the absolute minimum in consequence of his experience, as his case was considered as one of the worst with which the Minnesota authorities have ever had to deal.
As a result of his escape, Health Commissioner P. M. Hall lost no time in dismissing Oscar Berger, who has been in charge of the hospital for the past year. Sanitary Inspector Albert J. Lunt was appointed his successor.
The Saint Paul Globe; “Escapes Naked with Smallpox. Delirious Inmate of Quarantine Hospital Runs Away.”; May 2, 1903; p. 7.
1http://www.amnh.org/explore/science-topics/disease-and-eradication/countdown-to-zero/smallpox
Photo taken by Pamela J. Erickson. Released
into the public domain May 2, 2018, as long as acknowledgement included.
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