Virgin Saints and MartyrsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Virgin Saints and Martyrs
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian women saints; Martyrs
Mr. S. Welsh says:—“In the spring of 1875 there was a second visitation
of the disease, and fears were entertained that the results would be as
bad as during the former visitation. One morning Sister Dora came to me
and said, ‘Do you know, I have an idea that if some one could be got to
go to the epidemic hospital in whom the people have confidence, they
would send their friends to be nursed, the patients would be isolated,
and the disease stamped out?’” This was because a prejudice was
entertained against the new small-pox hospital, and those who had sick
concealed the fact rather than send them to it. “I said,” continues Mr.
Welsh, “‘I have long been of the opinion you have just expressed; but
where are we to get a lady, in whom the people would have confidence, to
undertake the duty?’ Her prompt reply was, ‘I will go.’ I confess the
sudden announcement of her determination rather took me by surprise, for
I had no expectation of it, and not the most remote idea that she
intended to go. ‘But,’ I said, ‘who will take charge of the hospital if
you go there?’ ‘Oh,’ she replied, ‘I can get plenty of ladies to come
there, but none will go to the epidemic. And,’ she added, by way of
reconciling me to her view, ‘it will only be for a short time.’ ‘But
what if you were to take the disease and die?’ I inquired. ‘Then,’ she
added, in her cheery way, ‘I shall have died in the path of duty, and,
you know, I could not die better.’ I knew it was no use pointing out at
length the risk she ran, for where it was a case of saving others,
_self_ with her was no consideration. I tried to dissuade her on other
grounds.... A few days later, I was in company with the doctor of our
hospital, who was also medical officer of health, and who, as such, had
charge of the epidemic hospital, near to which we were at the time. He
said, ‘Do you know where Sister Dora is?’ ‘At the hospital, I suppose,’
was my reply. ‘No,’ he rejoined, ‘she is over there!’—pointing to the
epidemic hospital.... The people, as soon as they knew Sister Dora was
in charge, had no misgiving about sending their relatives to be nursed,
and the result was as she had predicted; the cases were brought in as
soon as it was discovered that patients had the disease, and the
epidemic was speedily stamped out.”
She had, however, a hard time of it there, as she lacked assistants. Two
women were sent from the workhouse, but they proved of little use. The
porter, an old soldier, was attentive and kind in his way, but he always
went out “on a spree” on Saturday nights, and did not return till late
on Sunday evening. When the workhouse women failed her, she was
sometimes alone with her patients, and these occasionally in the
delirium of small-pox.
It was not till the middle of August, 1875, that the last small-pox
patient departed from the hospital, and she was able to return to her
original work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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