Since Carol's Doctor's request for great-grandfather Chester Clarke's Willard Hospital records received a negative response (I think they didn't receive or read the right information, in looking for his record), my nurse practitioner has sent the following letter:
JMH Medical Practice
28 Church Street
Alfred, New York 14802
607-587-8143
607-587-9175 fax
Binghamton Psychiatric Center
425 Robinson Street
Binghamton, NY 13904
September 10, 2008
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter in request of copies of medical records for Chester Smedley Clarke (DOB July 15, 1849). Chester Smedley Clarke is the great-grandfather of a patient of mine, George Douglas Clarke (DOB 11/20/1957).
Per the information that was able to be accessed from the Allegany County court records, Chester was committed to the Willard State Hospital on or about July 8, 1904.
Do to the unknown nature of Chester’s commitment to the Willard State Hospital I would like to inquire into his medical records, so that if there is an underlying hereditary predilection that I may document that in my patient’s chart.
It is stated, per the Allegany County records of the Superior Court “in the matter of Clarke, Chester S.”: “At a special term of Superior Court held at the Court House in the city of Rochester New York… on the 20th day of May, 1905, present Hon. Nathaniel Foote, Justice… in the matter of the appointment of a Committee of the person and estate of Chester S. Clare [sic] an alleged incompetent person and an inmate of the Willard State Hospital, on reading and filling the petition of Robert M. Elliott, Superintendent of the Willard State Hospital… duly verified on the 6th day of April, 1905, asking for the appointment of a committee… the said Chester S. Clark was duly committed to said Hospital as an incompetent on the 5th day of July, 1904 admitted thereto on the 8th day of July, 1904, and is now an inmate… at the time of commitment was a resident of the town of Alfred, State of New York…”
A second record, “At a special term of the Supreme Court held at the Court House in the Village of Belmont, NY… on the third day of September 1907, Present, Hon. Truman C. White, justice presiding… in the matter of Chester S. Clarke, an incompetent person upon the coming in of the Referee’s report in this proceeding, dated the 18th day of July 1907, by which it appears that the said Chester S. Clarke has so far recovered his mental capacity as to be capable of managing his person and affairs and that there is not any longer a necessity for a committee of his person and property…”
My patient, George Douglas Clarke has stated that the only information he knows of his great-grandfather is that Chester had little or no contact with his family from 1904 to the date of his death which was on the 23rd day of October, 1925 in Binghamton. And, that the reason for Chester’s committal to the State Hospital was not talked of by anyone in his family all the way back to his great-grandmother, Agnes K.C. Bond.
I appreciate your assistance in this matter, and hope that I will hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Sherry S Herdman, MS FNP CDE
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3 comments:
Doug,
Great letter; I'm sure you had nothing to do with the actual text. Tee hee. I imagine they will overlook the misgiven relationship of the patient and AKC Bond. I am very thankful for your pursuing this. It will be very interesting if we discover that he was manic and/or depressive or whatever they called it a hundred years ago.
Sherman
Yeah, right.
I sent her plenty to work with, of course. I had already had to correct two things the secretary had missed, so I let the AKCB relation go, rather than have her run to pull the letter out of the mailbox. . .
I will be delighted if there is any record, at all. Carol had gotten dejected when her Dr. had taken so long to get a letter out, and then got a negative result. I was glad Sherry's office jumped right on it.
I do not have a copy of the letter my doctor sent to Binghamton, but she showed it to me on screen on her computer. It was short and to the point and she included documentation I had given her. When she called at my next appointment after getting the terse, we find "no record" of him letter from them, she found out that the request had been passed around to several people. She was quite assertive in her conversation with them pointing out that the letter listed his DOB as Oct 23, 1925 which was the day he died. She got a call back the next day telling her that they tried again and looked under Clarke without the "e" and got a "hit". The doctor called me to tell me and that is where the process is at the moment. More when it is available.
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