[untitled]
T doctors
who waited on President McKinley when he was assassinated are expecting
a big appropriation by Congress for their bungling work. Here is
a statement Dr. Matthew D. Mann gives out to the Buffalo News: “We
feel that when we operated on the president of the United States
that we operated for the American people, with a view of saving
their president or [sic] them; we were not called by the
family of President McKinley, but by the authorities, the cabinet
and others, to take charge of the president, and we feel therefore
that we have a right to look to Congress and the nation for our
remuneration. We took a tremendous responsibility, because we took
in our hands the life of the most prominent man in the world; and
we feel that in taking such a responsibility we ran an immense risk.
Had the autopsy showed that we made any serious mistake we would
have received unlimited condemnation—we might even have been ruined
professionally. From all these facts, we feel that we should not
be called upon to render bills to the family. Any bill which we
might render to the late president’s estate would be larger than
Mrs. McKinley ought to be called upon to pay.” The doctors took
a great responsibility indeed, but from the result of their work
it is proven that the president took an even greater risk. It may
never be known which cost President McKinley his life—Czolgosz’s
bullet or some of his physicians’ knives.
|