The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-05-26
ale Gl.teLiqs@le1.
asIsrER pORA.n
A glimpse OF the Life ofa remarkable
RnKliah woman.

become q good surgical nurse, and he
quick observation and retentiye memoir.
proved important helps toward the dis
cernment Of the character Of wounds ant
the discovery Of the exact position o
fractures. By the end Of three years shl
had become the head Of the nursing de
partment Of the Walsall hospital, and th,
entire organization Of the internal arrange
ments Of a new and much larger building
was then laid upon her shoulders. From
the opening Of this establishment siste
Dora, with the permission Of the surgeons
attended all the postmortem examina
lions, and in this way acquired an accu
rate knowledge Of the different parts o
the human body. She learned 10 perform
the minor operations upon dead subjects
and proved, beyond all doubt, her manuA
skill and dexterity. Notwithstanding the
incessant physical and moral strain tt
which she was subjected by the nature o.
her vocation, II was some years before heI
astonishing strength and vitality appeared
10 suffer.
The doctor under whom she worked de
scribes her physical power as gigantic,
She seemed 10 reyel In the exercise Of It,
and delighted 10 put 1t TO the everest test
II a huge collier fell out Of bed mot an I'M
common evenly she asked no one TO help
her, but picked him up, as II he had been
q baby, and put him back again. One oil
her patients relates how, when man died
in bed next his own during the night,
sister Dora, who was the only nurse
present, took up the body in her arms
| with apparent ease aud carried 1t straight
10 the mortuary room, which was AZ a con-
siderable distance from the waIds. On
another occasion, when adeliriOus patient,
y tall, heavy man, in the worst stage oil
confueut small. pox, threw himself out oil
bed with loud yell, she grappled with
him, forced him back into the bed, and
held him there by main strength until the
doctor arrived in the morning. His amaze
ment when she told him Of her hand.to-
hand struggle prolol ged for hours, knew
no bounds. "Her strength" be told u
friend, WAS superhuman. l never saw
such woman"
at this epoch (1SSs and 1870 Sister
Dora not only seemed incapable OF fatigue,
but what was even mure phenomenal in
the case OF delicAtely nurtured woman,
the mure dreadful and disgusting her
work, the more her spirits rose to the &C.
cAsion. Il sounds almost Incredible, but
It is nevertheless TACT that, that she was
IN the habit Of bringing back TO life pa
ients who had sunk into the first stage Of
the fatal collapse which often precedes
death from small pox bv actually putting
her mouth 10 theirs and breathing into
them until vitality was restored. Que
night she was sent for by poor mar, who
Was much attached 10 her. and who was
dying Of what is called black pox, yio-
lent form OF smallpox. She went at once
and found him alone, forsaken by his re-
lations, and almost In the last extremity.
Alter some little while the dying man
raised himself up in bed with last effort,
saying: "Sister, kiss me before die"
She took the poor wretch, covered as he
was with loathsome disease, into her
arms aud kissed him, the candle going out
almost as she did 30, leaving them in total
darkness.
1t was then past midnight, but she sat
on, for how long she knew not, until he
died. Even then she waited, iancyiDg, as
she Gopld not TO see him, that he might
he still alive, till in the early dawn she
CROPPED her way 10 the door and went TO
dud some neighbors. On another occe'
sion the doctor hastily fetched her TO look
at q child who was in the last stage oil
diphtheria. As q forlorn hope he per.
formed the operation OF tracheotQmy--
making an inclsion, that Is, In the child's
throat, and inserting tube, In hopes that
the choking might be relieved. Sister Dora
knelt down by Lne bed, put bar mouth TO
the incision, and by sucking deliberately
cleared the child's throat OF the poisonous
mucous which WAS choking 1t. The child
ultimately recovered, TO die OF another
disease. Sister Dora suffered for three
weeks with dIphLherilic sore throat, but
but escaped without any further injury.
| During the winter OF 1873 sistet Dora
experienced for the first ume difficulty
| in lifting her patients. She was examined
by surgeon, who detected the existence
oil a cancer, which he told her must prove
laial. She made him promise TO conceal
| the nature OF hHr complaint, and went on
with her hospital WORK until Icy months
before her death. Her motive Tor the con.
eeslmsnt of her disorder was that she
night not give any gIopnd ior me asser-
lion that she hat Killed hsiseli ~ her
mode OF life, or, as iguOrant persons nlsht
think possible, lhst she had caught can.
e.: from come OF her patispts Der nrst
feeling when, in October 1879, she Eas
ioId oi the speedy approach ot death, was
one Of great Joy and relief that the hard
trnvpIe which she had kept up for twenty
months was at last 70 have an end. Her
last thoughts were for her pAisGtsI and
her one remaining earthly anxiety was 10
6nd a successor TO herself who would fly
carry on the work which she had organ.
.lized. Even when she was moaning with
main. which she said was like the cutting
II a knife, she would go on dlctaing d..
rections or suggestions concerning huspi.
tai work.
Thoee who nursed ler during the nights
say she spent the greater part OF them
lin praying aloud, or in regretting all that
she had left unperformed. One OF The
nurses tried to cemiort her by saying:
HWhy, sister, only think Of all the good
Won have done 10 Us poor folk. IL was
through you Hrst learned TO play; what
should have been without your" With
a gesture almost OF despair, Sister Dora
lapswered: "DOn't talk Of what ! have
done; / have never done half what !
j might. Lam not nearly SO good Is you
are, Mrs. R" In her last hour, when
ali human efforts for her relief had been
exhausted, she said, as :hey stood watch
ing her;. II have lived alone; let me die
! alone" repeating let me die alone Till
they were forced TO lsaye her, one friend
only watching through the hAll'open
door. -Four days aiterward she was car
lied TO her gave in conformity with her
last wish by some OF the railway lahorers
whom she had nursed. Asthe humble pro
cession passed, 1t was joined by hundreds
If old patients, who followed the plain
leoffin with heads bowed and tears stream
ing down their cheeks. A multitude o.
the poor, the MANNED, the halt, and the