Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-05-04
HOSPITAL HORRORS.
STORIES OF SURGICAL RECKLESS
NESS AS TOLD IN A BOOK.

What an Observing EnGlishman Says Con
corning the Terrible Things That Ars
Done in the Teaching Hospitals of Lon
don-Heartless Experimenting.
At second and third hand we may imagine
our author to have gathered the account he
gives us of the terrible things that are done
in the teaching hospitals. Here are two OF
his illustrations of the treatment of mort
bund patients. A nurse calls house sur
geon:
"'Sister says she thinks he is dying fast,
and are you going to operatef Going to
operatel Rather think | was. Don't you
know, nurse, this is my first capital opera
tions Do you think / am going to lose the
chancer Then, sir, sister told me to ask you
if had better let the chaplain know Chap
lain be hangedr he cried. Certainly notl 1t
| would only depress the poor devil. No, moi
| Plenty of brandy Keep him upl Cheer
him all you can; tell him it is only n trifiing,
every day sort of affair, and he will bO well
| in a jify. You may send FOR his wife, 'Oh,
| sir, she has been waiting about the hospital
all day. All right, then! 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 lit
| who hadn't n chance of getting over it, 'Ah,
you won't talk like that when you are house
surgeon III S. they always termed it your
self. You will he glad to operate on your
father, if you can't get anybody else. Be
sides, what are hospitals for, if not to qualify
us for our wOrkf If people don't want us to
learn all we can from the.l, why don't they
stay at home and diei The parish doctor
won't disturb their latter moments with op.
erations.'n
And again:
Here is middle aged woman, evidently
having but short time to live, yet this
afternoon DR.. Wilson says his chief proposes
to perform upon her a capital operation.
He has not the least hope it can save her life,
but the chance of performing such an opera
tion 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-'th only means
of saving her life'-shall forthwith be done
To this end all the nurses are instructed to
urge her. At last sho 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 chloroform has
effected its work he will take the place of the
chief and do his first stranguated hernia"
Among the cases of heartless experiment.
ing we have the following:
Would you like to do a gastrotomy2
You ought to do one or two before you leave;
its very pretty operation. l never knew a
case survive more than week. but there's
nothing like trying, and if You pick out a case
that must die any way you are welcome to
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, ssterf-it can generally be man
aged Il wish to investigate said
one of his dressers, the presence of lithic
acid in tho blood of rheumatic patients. May
| blister one or two of your patients, Mr.
Grower oh, certainly said the obliging
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 inconceivable cases of carelessness |
and recklessness are charged against the ap- |
orators.
"VIsions of similar cases crowded in upon |
the good Sisters recollections-of eviscer-
ated creatures in which no tumor was dis
covered to remove; of cases where, on the |
post mortem table, sponges, and even instru-
nents bad been discovered carelessly sewn
up in the patients after operation, and had
caused their deaths :" One day an
Did pavior smashed his hand. The surgeons
1T St Bernard wanted to remove three
ingers. Not before he had been to see Sister
Agnes, he thought. Sister Agnes went in
'or conservative surgery, and told him to re-
use his consent. How often had she known
simple method of dressing to save the
lights in such a case. In three months the
nan had the complete use of his hand as be-
ore the accident, but that didn't console the
louse surgeon, whose fingers had itched to
make neat little job of it.n-London Spec
ator Book Review