Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1909 — Diphtheria in the Family of Dr. Wells, at DeMotte. [ARTICLE]

Diphtheria in the Family of Dr. Wells, at DeMotte.

Dr. L. N. Wells, the DeMotte physician, telephoned this morning to County Health Officer, Dr. M. D. Gwin, stating that his little grand daughter, Hester Wells, daughter of William Wells, was very sick, of diphtheria. He informed Dr. Gwin that he had complied with the quarantine law and was himself quarantined with the Utt tie patient and that they were under the charge of a Wheatfield physician who had administered the antitoxin treatment to the little girl Monday. Hester is four years of age and last week accompanied her grandparents to Chicago, where it. is thought she must have been exposed to the disease. She took sick Sunday. Dr. Wells also telephoned to the family of his brother-in-law, Senator A. Halleck. He informed them that the little girl’s father, who is the postmaster, was quarantined away from home and was able to look after his postofflce duties. The sick child is four years of age, and is motherless, the mother having died of consumption. The child is very frail even when well, and there- are extreme doubts of its life being saved, although today it seems somewhat improved. There are no other cases of the disease in DeMotte.