Heroines That Every Child Should Know: Tales for Young People of the World's Heroines of All Ages
History
Heroines That Every Child Should Know: Tales for Young People of the World's Heroines of All Ages
Women heroes
Since her death, in commemoration of her labours at Walsall, a very
beautiful statue has been there erected to her, and on the pedestal
are bas-reliefs representing incidents in her life there. One of these
illustrates a terrible explosion that took place in the Birchett's
Iron Works, on Friday, October 15, 1875, whereby eleven men were so
severely burnt that only two survived. All the others died after their
admission into the hospital. It came about thus: The men were at work
when water escaped from the "twyer" and fell upon the molten iron in
the furnace and was at once resolved into steam that blew out the
front of the furnace, and also the molten iron, which fell upon the
men. Some suffered frightful agonies, but the shock to the nervous
systems of others had stupefied them. The sight and the smell were
terrible. Ladies who volunteered their help could not endure it, and
were forced to withdraw, some not getting beyond the door of the ward.
But Sister Dora was with the patients incessantly till they died,
giving them water, bandaging their wounds, or cutting away the sodden
clothes that adhered to the burnt flesh. Some lingered on for ten
days, but in all this time she never deserted the fetid atmosphere of
the ward, never went to bed.
She had so much to do with burns that she became specially skilful in
treating them. Children terribly burnt or scalded were constantly
brought to the hospital; often men came scalded from a boiler, or by
molten metal. She dressed their wounds herself, but, if possible,
always sent the patients to be tended at home, where she would visit
them and regularly dress their wounds, rather than have the wards
tainted by the effluvium from the burns. Her treatment of burnt
children merits quotation.
"If a large surface of the body was burnt, or if the child seemed
beside itself with terror, she did not touch the wounds themselves,
but only carefully excluded the air from them by means of cotton wool
and blankets wrapped around the body. She put hot bottles and flannel
to the feet, and, if necessary, ice to the head. Then she gave her
attention to soothing and consoling the shocked nerves--a state which
she considered to be often a more immediate source of danger to the
life of the child than the actual injuries. She fed it with milk and
brandy, unless it violently refused food, when she would let it alone
until it came round, saying that force, or anything which involved
even a slight further shock to the system, was worse than useless.
Sometimes, of course, the fatal sleep of exhaustion, from which there
was no awakening, would follow; but more often than not food was
successfully administered, and after a few hours, Sister Dora, having
gained the child's confidence, could dress the wounds without fear of
exciting the frantic terror which would have been the result of
touching them at first."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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