At the age of 17, Sangret received the first of many diagnoses that he had contracted a venereal disease. On this first occasion, upon medical advice, he had unsuccessfully attempted to cure himself using a potassium permanganate solution, before admitting himself to a Battleford hospital to undergo extensive treatment for a bladder obstruction. This would prove to be the first of at least six occasions in which Sangret would receive treatment for a contracted venereal disease, attesting to his sexual promiscuity, although the remaining five instances would occur between 1938 and 1942.