 |  |  |
|---|
STARVATION HEIGHTS
At Wilderness Heights Sanitorium, patients sought to experience the benefits of the pseudo-medical technique “fasting therapy” and would be guided and assisted by Linda Burfield Hazzard. The state of hunger made the patients so delirious that some gave up their power to attorney, land, and finances to Hazard before they died. Ultimately, Hazzard experienced the success of her medical technique when she died from trying starvation therapy on herself.
The Wilderness Heights or “Starvation” Heights Sanitarium was really nothing more than Hazzard’s house and some cabins, where most treatments took place. Treatment would consist of a fast for one to ten days or more, that would in theory, allow the organs to rest and make the body rid itself of toxins that caused sickness. The fast would be broken with a diet of soups and broths. Abstinence from food was not the only thing that patients had to undergo. There were other techniques of the treatment such as hour-long enemas or “internal baths” that could be given once to three times a week.
Other techniques that patients encountered were massaging treatments, which were roughly akin to boxing. Some patients would try to speed up the process to finish, while others withdrew their consent, but were forced to stay. When patients died, starvation was never determined to be the cause of death. Additionally, the delirium that patients experienced from hunger would allow them to be manipulated into making drastic decisions like, as previously mentioned, signing their rights over to Hazzard.
Physical distress was not the only kind of pain that patients encountered as this is shown through Dora and Claire Williamson. When they tried to leave, they were persuaded out of their decision and continued to be persuaded into staying until they were physically forced to stay. Claire died a few days later and Hazzard did her autopsy only to conclude that fasting was not the cause; rather, she believed that the toxins being expelled from her body was the cause of death.
When the Williamson’s childhood nurse tried to rescue them after witnessing the appalling conditions, she found out that Hazzard had become Dora’s guardian due to her claim of mental incompetence, as well as holding her for $2000 debt of medical bills. Only when British Vice Consul C.E. Lucien Aggassiz freed Dora (pictured left) and exposed Hazzard’s acts to court is when Wilderness Heights Sanitarium came to an end and “Dr. Hazzard” was finally put behind bars.
Sources:
Hazzard, Linda. Scientific Fasting: The Ancient and Modern Key to Health. New York: Grant Publications, 1927.
Wilderness Heights Sanitarium. Dr. Linda Hazzard. Linda Burfield Hazzard: The Doctor Who Starved Her Patients to Death. Accessed April 3, 2020. https://media.bizarrepedia.com/images/linda-burfield-hazzard-starvation-heights.jpg
Washington Secretary of State. “Archives Spotlight: Hungry for Wealth, ‘Starvation Healer’ Ran Deadly Olalla Clinic.” (blog). Washington Secretary of State, (February 9, 2018). Accessed March 26, 2020. https://blogs.sos.wa.gov/fromourcorner/index.php/2018/02/history-friday-hungry-for-wealth-psychotic-doctor-starves-patients
Washington Secretary of State. “Fasting for the Cure of Diesease.” Linda Hazzard. (1908). Accessed March 28, 2020 https://blogs.sos.wa.gov/fromourcorner/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/History-Friday-Hazzard-Book-194x300.jpg
Wilderness Heights Sanitorium. “One of Dr. Hazzard’s victims who survived the “treatment.” Dr. Linda B. Hazzard. (n.d.). Accessed April 3, 2020. https://blogs.sos.wa.gov/fromourcorner/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Hazzard-Victim-Survivor.jpg
Washington State Archives. Linda Burfield Hazzard: Healer or Murderess? Collection Highlights, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov, March 30, 2020.