Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-07-26
THE HOSPITAL GIRL.
AN INTERESTING INSIGHT INTO HER
 RESPONSIBLE DUTIES.

RESPONSIBLE DUTIES.
 Alone All Night in a Gloomy Ward with a Score or More of Sick and Dying Patients-The Clang of the Ambulance Gong.
 At the end of three months the novice is put on night duty in either the medical or surgical ward, and then it is that all the heroism and courage of her nature is called into action. One nurse IS put in charge of two wards, each containing, when full, twenty patients. The lights are turned down until dusky silence hovers over the white cots. In the surgical ward the doctor leaves his orders, often supplemented by the infor- nation that patient in one ward has just passed through a severe operation, there is danger of hemorrhage, and the nurse must not leave her alone. Perhaps in the other ward patient is very low. The doctor says she must be watched constantly, for she is liable to die at any moment Then he goes away, and the young girl fits about in the gloom from cot to cot, administering medi-
 cines and treatment, hurrying from the side of one sufferer to the other, half fearful to gaze into the quiet face lest it be already still in death afraid the dangerously i'll pa tient in one ward will die while she goes to see the dying sufferer in the other.
 Suddenly the dread clang that all nurses fear with a nameless horror strikes upon her ear through the dreadful stiffness. It draws nearer and nearer, and stops at the doorway. Every nurse knows the portent of the ambu- lance bell. Every nurse fears the arrival of some patient if there is empty cot in her ward. Then comes the sound of slow, measured footsteps drawing nearer and nearer, and she flies to make ready the empty cot, only hoping no one will die while she is engaged with the new conner. The men come in with the stretcher and deposit it's burden on the bed. The nurse washes the blood from the wounds, if there be any; determines the extent of the injury as much as possible, and, if very serious, calls the doctor. If only cut needing few stitches and careful bandaging, the nurse per forms the operation herself; bathes her pa tient and makes her comfortable, and then
 hurries back, perhaps to witness for the first time the last struggle of a dying person. When the last shuddering sigh falls from the stiffening lips, the brave girl alone in the gloomy ward closes the eyes, folds the life less hands, and taking down the card bear ing the name of the dead from over the bed, hurries down through the long dim corridors to tell the orderly to prepare for the burial If the patient be heavy, the nurse calls the helper, woman from prison, one of which is kept to do the cleaning in each ward, and together they "do up the corpse" as it is called in the hospital. If, on the other hand, the dead woman is slender, the nurse bathes and shrouds her alone, all of which must be accomplished within an hour after her death Then the men enter with the box and she is borne out, the nurse throws the bedding out on the fire escape and returns to her duties. Many girl has met her first experience of this kind alone in the dim wards of the hos pital late at night, for deaths are likely to occur between the hours of 12 and 0. m., when vitality is at a low ebb.
 A person who has watched at night by tre bedside of one who is very ill can have a faint notion of the responsibility of person in charge of forty patients in various degrees of danger. A young woman who had known nothing of sickness and little of work re- lates one nights experience when an elderly
 woman was apparently dying in great dis tress and required constant attention. In the cot adjoining lay another patient, who, though not ill imminent danger was suffer- ing terribly and who had, as the nurse ex- pressed it, more things the matter with her than any one ever had before or since" The nurse had pulled the screens up around the dying womans bed and was administering such alleviating remedies as lay in her power,
 
 in the adjoining ward, and hastening there found an immense fat woman, crazy with fever, prOmenading up and down the ward, making havoc with everything movable Coaxing, commanding and assisting her, she was finally settled in bed again, but as the
 uurse bent over her dying patient the same commotion was heard in the other ward again, and she went back, and after coaxing the woman into her cot she tied her feet to the iron bars at the foot of the bed. Once more she hurried to the other ward only to find one patient writhing in pain, the other
 with clenched hands tossing in the death struggle. As the quivering features calmed to peacefulness and the groans were hushed to silence, she heard the noise of groans and screams in the other ward, and found the fat woman on the floor, with her feet still tied to the bed. By the help of all the force in the ward she was lifted to her place,
 strapped down to the bed, and in the gray light of the dawn the dead woman was pre-
 pared for her burial, while the living moaped in pain.
 In another cot perfect specimen of wo- manhood lay dying The doctors, with mis-
 directed zeal, had prolonged her agony by the operation of tracheotomy, and she lay struggling with death in all the freshness and strength of her early womanhood. There had been another fire horror, and to save her
 children she had dashed backed into the
 burning building, inhaling heat and smoke
 that had injured her internally past all re-
 covery. The round curving limbs were like
 sculptured marble, majestic in their white
 beauty; the sweet, fair face was unscorched
 by the flames and unfaded by disease; the
 white statuesque arms were tossed above her
 head In agony. Just as she gave her last
 spasmodic shiver the little babe she had saved
 so heroically moaned out, "Ma-ma-ma-na,"
 the first time it had spoken since it was
 brought there, and with smile the mother
 reached out her hands toward the voice, and
 was dead. The nurses wept softly as they
 bathed the beautiful form, though they are
 so accustomed to death it has littly terror or
 sorrow for them.
 One nurse who has been practicing her pro-
 fession for some ti1ne says she doesn't believe
 even now that she could go back to tue hos
 pital and live through those night watches
 again, though she loves her work and feels
 all it's responsibility and sacredness. Many