The Hospital of Seven Teeth
2. Patient Life
Of all the hospitals I have been to, this one appears to have been the worst. The facility caused a scandal in 1990 when the extent of patient abuse was finally revealed.
From Boston Globe, March 1991:
Michael Bogosian, a 32-year-old supervisory investigator for the department, recalled a case in which one patient was discovered to have mysterious burn marks around his mouth.
"The first clue came from a nursing supervisor," Bogosian explained. "When she raised her hand to smoothe her hair, the patient shrank back into a corner in a show of dread." Other patients in the unit exhibited similar reactions.
Investigators learned that two patients in the unit suffered from an illness that compelled them to eat cigarettes. From interviews with reluctant staff members, Bogosian learned that several staff workers would throw lighted cigarettes on the floor and watch the patients leap to swallow them.
The investigation revealed that some half-dozen staff members were also involved in punching and kicking the patients, while another half-dozen knew about the abuse but failed to report it.
In another case, a mental health worker forced a blind patient to strip and painted a swastika on his buttocks.
In the most recent highly publicized case of patient abuse, investigators spent about seven months and interviewed more than 100 people to find out who was involved in a pattern of sexual abuse of female patients at ___ State Hospital. In November, department officials announced the firing of four hospital workers in connection with the sexual abuse of five female patients. The department also disciplined 31 other staff members for failing to report their knowledge or suspicions about sexual abuse at the facility.
These were only the most recently publicized bad things that happened here. Coming across the machinery of electroshock, electrosurgery, and devices I could not identify, along with piles of sad patient records, I wonder about the many untold stories.
There are countless patient files containing drawings and results of various tests -- sentence completions, Rorschach tests, digit symbol tests, Wechsler-Bellevue intelligence evaluations -- complete with charts "for calculating deterioration". The files are divided into certain time periods and then arranged alphabetically. A few are from the 1940's, but most seem to be from the early 60's. I searched the "D" sections, knowing full well that I wouldn't find what I was looking for.
Aside from the poignant statements contained within the records, the presence of these documents itself is an indictment of the system. Open file cabinets, carelessly stacked boxes beckon for a closer look. Why are these documents not securely locked up or destroyed? How dare the administrators of this hospital leave such confidential information for others to discover? I am battling with my ethics. It is not right for me to read private statements concerning fears, family relations, sexual desires, suspicions of inadequacy -- especially since some of these patients must still be alive. And yet I am compelled. The fact that I have to battle with my ethics alone compels me and at times I am veering into obsessive tracks.
The drawings are unlike any I've ever seen. And what sort of drawing, provided during a psychological examination, would eventually earn a treatment by one of these machines?
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