Fifty-sixth annual report of the County & City of Worcester Lunatic Asylum, Powick, for the year 1908, and financial statements, 1908-9.

County and City of Worcester Lunatic Asylum (Powick)

Date:: 1909

Credit: Fifty-sixth annual report of the County & City of Worcester Lunatic Asylum, Powick, for the year 1908, and financial statements, 1908-9. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$The causes of death have been verified by post-mortem examination in the satisfactory proportion of 88 per cent. Amongst these causes were general paralysis, 53 per cent. ; phthisis, 14-5 per cent. ; and senile decay, 20 per cent. There have been four deaths from dysentery, all of females, and a male patient has died from typhoid fever. Bedsores were present at death in 4-5 per cent, of the cases. Nine inquests have been held. One concerned a female patient who committed suicide while absent on trial ; another was on the case of a female who died the day after admission from heart failure due to pressure of a large mediastinal abscess, accelerated by the shock of the passage of the stomach tube. Of the remainder, four were cases in which death was directly or indirectly due to fractures of bones from accidental falls ; and three were deaths from natural causes. Particulars of each of these cases were reported to our Board at the time. As regards zymotic disease, there were many cases of influenza in the winter months on both sides of the Asylum, amongst the staff as well as the patients. Dysentery has not been so prevalent this year as formerly, the total cases recorded since the last visit being 31, of which 16 were on the female side. The fatal case of typhoid fever is the only instance of that affection which has occurred, and the origin of the attack could not be traced. There have been nine cases of facial erysipelas, and one of varicella. One of the male attendants has been attacked by diphtheria. The serious but not fatal casualties have been numerous. They include two cases of attempted suicide, both of male patients, one in which serious injuries to throat and neck were inflicted with a piece of glass, the other in which the head and shoulder were severely cut and bruised and the clavicle fractured by the man throwing himself under a cart while out walking on the farm. In addition to these there have been 15 instances of fractured bones, the majority caused by falls, either accidental or in fits, or by being pushed down by fellow patients. But in one case fracture of the skull, and in two cases fractures of ribs, were caused by assaults by$