Our mortality among the civilians in comparison with the soldiers was exceedingly high. The first cases seen by us were among the soldier patients sent to the hospital. These were as fine a lot of healthy young men as one can well imagine. They came to the hospital comparatively early in the infection. After the first week it appeared as though our experience would be entirely different from those in other localities, for we had very few deaths. In another week our mortality began to rise, but never as high as among the civilians, as will be seen by the following figures.
Of the 153 soldiers 87 were without lung involvement, and of these none died; 66 had lung involvement, and of these 16 died. Mortality among the 153 was 10 per cent. Of the 394 civilians 157 were without lung involvement, and of these 1 died; 237 had lung involvement, or some other complication, and of these 93 died. Mortality among the 394 was 23.6 per cent.
It will be seen that the mortality in the civilians was more than twice as high as in the soldiers. It has already been mentioned that the soldiers were ordered to the hospital promptly. The civilian patients, on the other hand, were later in coming to the hospital, some of them appearing when they had already developed serious complications. Another factor in determining the mortality were the ages of the patients. The soldiers ranged from 18 to 34 years, with an average of 20 years. The civilians ranged from 6 months to 73 years, with an average of 30 years. Generally speaking, the greater the age the higher was the mortality.
A third factor which should be considered in determining the actual mortality is the result of later complications and sequelæ. The figures as given are those of 547 patients, 110 of whom had died in the Mercy Hospital and 437 of whom had been discharged therefrom between September 22 and November 30, 1918, the length of the quarantine. Those who were discharged had been up and about for a week or 10 days before leaving the hospital. From our experience with post-influenzal patients admitted to the Mercy Hospital since November 30, we are of the opinion that some of the patients discharged before November 30 as recovered may have later developed sequelæ which might have proved fatal. No follow-up system has been pursued as yet which enables us to speak definitely and statistically of the present condition of those discharged.