How an Old Yet Tragic Oversight Allows a Killer to Flourish
Linda Hazzard: The remarkable failure of Washington to protect its people from evil
Few things are so deadly as a misguided sense of compassion — Charles Colson
With those in the medical profession, especially doctors, there’s an inherent sense of trust. We trust that the medicine they prescribe for us and the treatments they order for us will make us better. We trust they are fully licensed to practice their specialty in the state they are employed in.
However, what happens when the state law has a loophole that allows those without a license to practice medicine? Today we’re featuring a case that occurred in Washington in the early 1900s. There was a loophole in Washington state statutes that allowed for unlicensed people to practice medicine under the title of “doctor.”
Linda Hazzard took advantage of that loophole to open a sanatorium in Olalla, Washington, which is located across the Sound from Seattle. She told her “patients” that she had a guaranteed treatment method that would cure all of their ailments. It didn’t matter to what degree their illness was, she guaranteed it would work.
Some people she treated swore by her methods. Some people never spoke out against the treatments…
