The Price of Red Tape in Everett

Andy Burns died in this city Thursday from neglect. No further words are necessary to impress upon the reader the horror of the fact that a human being was allowed to die in a civilized community merely from lack of attention. A half-dozen people were at the office yesterday, all of them inclined to lay the entire blame on Dr. Lytle, the city health officer. Some of them tell a story that makes it appear that he acted altogether in an inhumane manner. The News investigated these reports, interviewing the doctor himself, and is led to believe that this criminal negligence is the result of the superabundance of red tape used in conducting county affairs and a senseless regard for 'professional etiquette' for which the medical fraternity is ridiculously notorious. Dr. Lytle says he visited the man once and saw that he was more in need of good nursing than medicine; that he tried repeatedly by telephone to have the county commissioners order him taken to the hospital here for care, but Quinton Friars, in whose district this is, was up in the mountains and could not be reached. The deceased was noted among those who were acquainted with him for being an open-hearted, charitable man. He was unfortunately addicted to the morphine habit and was a physical wreck, but his life could have been prolonged by proper care, and it is a burning shame that he didn't receive it.