Diagnostic Difficulties

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

It amazes me that the University-wide committee which investigated the services of the Hygiene Department recently failed to call attention to the Hygiene Department's biggest failure. That is their inability to diagnose complaints more complicated than a broken arm.

Ninety percent of the students who are dissatisfied with the return they are getting on their $15 fee are just plain fed up with incompetent attention. May I cite two incidents from my personal history:

1) Every time I tried to walk, I experienced a sharp pain in my back. The Hygiene Department diagnosed my trouble as a muscle sprain and recommended and provided massage. When the massage had no effect, I went to my own doctor. He took one brief look at my back--unaccompanied by X-ray or apparatus--and announced that I had dislocated a bone in my back. Putting it back in place was a relatively simple operation and eliminated the pain. He was amazed that any doctor could have examined me and failed to see what was wrong.

2) Having had jaundice recently and being troubled with some of the symptoms, I went down to the Hygiene Department for a laboratory test. The previous 25 times the test had been taken, I had been told not to eat breakfast before the blood sample was drawn. Food, it seems, spoils the test. The Hygiene Department said, "The way we do our tests, it won't make any difference."

They drew blood and brought back a positive and somewhat alarming result. To verify their report, I went to a specialist who took a battery of tests--among them the same one the Hygiene Department had attempted. Every test he took indicated that the Hygiene Department's test had been completely wrong and that I was suffering no relapse.

Of what value is this department whose diagnoses, whether by medical skill or clinical fact, prove worthless? I should like to hear Dr. Bock explain away these charges as neatly as he now defends his department against all criticism--constructive or otherwise. Name Withheld by Request