Wichita eagle., 1888-07-21
HOSPITAL HORRORS
STORIES OF SURGICAL RECKLESS
NESS AS TOLD IN A BOOK.

What an Observing Engiishman Says Con-
corning the Terrible Things That Are
Done I'm the Teaching Hospitals Of Lon
don-Heartless Experimenting.
At second and third hand we may imagine
cur author to have gathered the account he
xives Us of the terrible things that arc done
In the teaching hospitals. Here are two OF
his illustrations Of the treatment OF mort
bund patients. A nurse calls a house sur.
geon:
"'Sister says she thinks he is dying fast,
and are you going to operater Going to
operated Rather think I was. Don't you
know, nurse this is my first capital opera
tiona Do you think l am going 10 lose the
charcer Then, sir, sister told me to ask you
if had better let the chaplain know Chap
lain be hangedr he cried Certainly not! II
would only depress the poor devil No, no!
Plenty OF brandy Keep him up, Cheer
him all you can; tell him it is only trifling,
every day sort of affair, and he will be well
in a jify. You may send for his wife oh,
sir, she has been waiting about the hospital
ell day AN right, them Now, gentlemen,
TO business. You shall see me do something
pretty The bell rang for the operation to
assemble the students, some of whom said 1t
v1.s beastly shame to torture poor wretch
who hadn't a chance of getting over it All,
you won't talk,iike that when you are house
surgeon Oh S they always termed It'll your
self You will be glad to operate on your
father, if you csnt get anybody else. Be
tides. what are hospitals for, If not to qualify
US for our work! Il people don't want US TO
learn all we can from thea, why don't they
stay at home and diei The parish doctor
won't disturb their latter moments with op.
erations'"
And again:
''Here is a middle aged woman, evidently
having but a short time 70 live, yet this
afternoon DIR. Wilson saws his chief proposes
TO perform upon her capital operation.
/ He has not the least hope it can save her life,
| but the chance of performing such an opora-
ton arises but seldom, and it is but just and
( kind to the house surgeon, who wants all the
practical work he can get, TO let him assist.
So the woman and her friends are duly
pressed to consent that this-'the only means
+ of saving her life'-shall forthwith be done.
/ To this end all the nurses are instructed TO
urge her. At last she submits. She will be
/ carried to the operating theatre, and this
chance OF instruction will fall to DR.. Wilson's
hands: for as soon as the chloroforrn has
effected IT'S work he will take the place OF the
chief and do his first strangulated hernia
Among the cases OF heartless experiment.
ing we have the following:
'''Would you like 70 do a gastrotonyl
You ought to do one or two before you leave;
it's very pretty operation L never knew a
case survive mora than a week: but there's
nothing like trying, and if you pick out case
that must die any way you are welcome 70
use any Of my cases that we can get to con-
sent, and with Sister Agnes consent-sister
is capital at getting consent in anything,
aren't you, sister.-it can generally be man
aged 4 wish to investigate said
one Of his dressers, the presence of lithic
acid in the blood of rheumatic patients May
I blister one or two Of your patients, Mr..
CroweH oh, certainly sad the obliging
physiologist; only you must take precau-
tions to let he patient imagine you are doing
it for his benefit, and be careful the nurses
don't see what you are about-nurses are get
ting cute nowadays With these provisoS,
you are free to roam at large, my friend.
over the bodies of any Of my clinics"
Almost uncomfortable cases Of carelessness
and recklessness are charged against the ap-
orators.
'sVIsions of similar cases crowded in upon
the good Sisters recollections-of eviscer-
ated creatures in which no turlor was dis
covered to remove; of cases where, on the
post Inortem table, sponges, and even instru-
ments had been discovered carelessly sewn
up in the patients after operation, and had
caused their deaths. One day IN
old pavior smashed his hand The surgeons
at ST. Bernard wanted TO remove three
fingers Not before he had been to see Sister
Agnes, he thought. Sister Agnes went in
for conservative surgery, and told him to re
fuse his consent How often had she known
a simple method Of dressing to save the
digits ii such 4 case. In three months the
man had the complete use OF his hand as be
fore the accident. but that didn't console tne
house surgeon, whose fingers had itched te
make a neat little job Of it. "-London Spec
tator Book Review.