Doing Nicely

There was a certain sameness to the daily medical bulletins issued from the Bethesda Naval Medical Center last week. Senator Joe McCarthy's right elbow trouble, diagnosed as bursitis, was responding satisfactorily to treatment. It took Joe himself to give some variety to the terse announcements.

An I.N.S. photographer found McCarthy propped up in bed in blue pajamas, swathed in bandages from his tuberositas deltoidea to his ossa metacarpalia. Joe told the photographer that doctors had "operated on the elbow to take out pieces of glass," presumably stuck there when Joe banged his arm against a table while shaking hands with an enthusiastic admirer in Wisconsin.

This came as news to the hospital, which cranked out a statement that "no surgical operative procedure" had been performed on McCarthy. On second thought came another bulletin, saying: "Senator McCarthy continues to show improvement. On Monday a small amount of fluid was removed from the bursa of the right elbow by syringe and needle aspiration. This is not considered technically to be an operation."

On Thanksgiving Day a woman called the Washington Post and Times-Herald. She had, she said, seen Joe and some friends in a car on Connecticut Avenue. When the hospital was checked, it was ready with another bulletin. Said the officer of the day: "All I can give you is this statement, which I will read to you. Quote: Senator McCarthy continues to show satisfactory response to treatment. Unquote." Later, a revision was made. Joe had left the hospital for a few hours in the afternoon and evening. Said a hospital spokesman: "Senator McCarthy's condition is very satisfactory."

Before Joe was discharged from the hospital (he left by a rear fire exit), a brash newsman asked a Bethesda doctor if he thought McCarthy had "taken a powder" on the censure proceedings against him in the U.S. Senate. Replied the doctor, straight-faced: "I'm sorry sir. I don't know what medication he has taken."

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