Page 5 - 1925 November - To Dragma

SEATTLE'S ORTHOPEDIC BED

TH E IDEA of an Alpha Omicron Pi bed in the Children's Ortho-
pedic Hospital in Seattle originated with the Seattle Alum-
nae Chapter at the time that the national work of the sorority
was announced. The Seattle Orthopedic Hospital has been i n
operation f o r some years and is a very favorite charity, so with
the decision of the national organization to enter upon work for
handicapped children, it was natural that we would think of this
hospital.

The cost of a bed in the hospital is $250 per year under the
plan of "naming" a bed, or $5,000 f o r an "endowment" of a
bed, which would establish the bed in perpetuity. Many of the
cases in the hospital are matters of charity, f o r no fees are col-
lected, unless the parents of the children can afford the cost.
Since many cases require the care of the children f o r months
and sometimes years, the expense would often be extremely
heavy f o r the child, for many surgical and corrective measures
are usually necessary.

During the first six months of 1925, the hospital accepted f o r
treatment 841 little children. The hospital becomes more
crowded each year, not because the number of crippled children
increases, but because more learn of the work that the hospital
is doing.

The hospital is a good-sized modern brick building on the top
of Queen Anne H i l l , one of the loftiest of Seattle's many heights.
A n old cottage on the property has been enlarged f o r a convales-
cent home, and other small buildings house the manual training
department and other adjuncts of the hospital. Within the hos-
pital, there are chiefly wards with several children in each. A
few more private rooms house the worst cases, there is a separate
ward f o r babies, which no one is allowed to visit, except mem-
bers of the families of these little tots, and in general the various
types of disease are segregated.

The scenes in the hospital are interesting and pitiful, though
the great help that is given to most cases is a most happy thought
for the visitor to keep in mind. Many children lie in bed all
day, held up often by frames and straps, placed i n certain fixed
positions to aid in their cure, or encased in plaster casts. Others