A Nurse's Life in War and PeaceLaurence, E. C. (Eleanor Constance)
History
A Nurse's Life in War and Peace
Laurence, E. C. (Eleanor Constance)
Military nursing; Nursing -- Great Britain; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Medical care
Several of the men had been with us over a week before they became
conscious of their surroundings at all; but in the case of those who
_were_ conscious, the comforts of a good bed, and a good wash, brought
tears of gratitude to their eyes. With many of them it was months since
they had slept in a bed: few have done so since they landed in this
country, and some of them seem such boys to have gone through so much.
I spent a good deal of my time at first helping the sister in the
officers' ward, getting her patients washed and made comfortable, and it
was most piteous to see these young fellows--most of them, probably,
brought up in luxury--so wasted and thin, and _so_ grateful for the
little that we could spare time to do for their comfort.
Lieutenant ---- had been laid up for two months with a bullet in the
groin, and is now very ill again with typhoid.
Captain ----, of the R.A.M.C., had been all through the siege of
Ladysmith, and had typhoid up there; now he has liver trouble and looks
wretchedly ill; I fancy he will have to go home for operation.
Captain ----, of the Royal Artillery, was the worst case of typhoid
amongst the officers, for some time his temperature persisting in
keeping up to 105 and 106, and he was very delirious; he was always
thinking he could see parties of Boers, and he told me I was the worst
scout he had ever come across, as I did not see them. He is doing well
now.
Lieutenant ----, of the Army Service Corps, had been ill for four weeks
with typhoid before he was landed here (still with a very high
temperature). He told me that no less than five times had he been moved
on a stretcher, from one place to another, as his regiment shifted
about, and he said that the order to move always seemed to come in the
evening, when his temperature was at its highest, and he was feeling so
bad, that at last he begged them to leave him behind to die; they had
never been able to give him suitable food, and often not enough of
unsuitable, and when at last he got to the line he had 280 miles of
jolting over a single-line rail, before he reached us--such treatment
for a case that, at home, we should be almost afraid to lift from one
bed to another! But he is really mending now, and I hope we shall soon
be able to send him home to recruit.
I have never had to give so much stimulant to any patients as we have
had to give to these men; all the first night I was going round giving
milk and brandy, or bovril, to the worst cases, while the night sister
sponged those whose temperatures were the highest; several of the men
were on ten ounces of brandy for the first few days. They have been so
overworked, and underfed, for some months past that they did not seem to
have an ounce of strength left to battle with the fever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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