CONCLUSION 



If what Shakespeare said, "a good heart is worth gold", be 

 true, along what lines is work to be done in the future to keep 

 the heart in as good physical condition as possible? No one 

 doctor can undertake the task, nor can one hospital do it. There 

 must first be an awakening to the need and then a systematic 

 fight waged. All doctors giving free medical aid should cooper- 

 ate. They should not be satisfied to treat an infectious disease 

 and pay little or no attention to the endangered heart. 



Mothers with little children should be warned against taking 

 a weakly child where it may catch some infectious disease. After 

 such a disease has been contracted by a child, the mother should 

 be directed as to how to care for it, so as not to cause a heart 

 involvement. 



Hospital doctors should be even more careful than in the 

 past not to dismiss any cardiac case before sufficient compensa- 

 tion is established. In some hospitals now the patient is not 

 discharged until the social service worker has seconded the doc- 

 tor's discharge. This insures the fact that the social service 

 worker has investigated the conditions to which the patient is 

 to return and made them as nearly suitable as possible. 



When the patient is discharged careful directions should 

 always be given as to the future care. The hospital doctors 

 really have an exceptional chance to educate the patient. When 

 a patient is down sick he is usually willing to listen to any 

 advice that may help him to regain or retain health. If general 

 instructions were given, each patient would be an educational 

 force for his family and friends. 



Doctors dealing with their own patients enter into detail 

 more in their instructions. All doctors, however, do a certain 

 amount of free work, so their aid should be enlisted in helping 

 to free society from this great burden. 



After the heart is once diseased the doctor is the important 

 factor, but his work must be supplemented. It is then that pro- 

 visions for special care must be made. This state especially 

 needs convalescent homes for such patients. There they could 

 be cared for after dismissal from the hospital much more cheaply, 

 for such skilled attendants or expensive equipment are not 



46) 



