Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1894-07-19
Written for the staunion Nindicator'
MODERN HOSPITAL SURGERY.
Viewed From a Patients Standpoint.

laying or declining surgical operations
is very large. This is chiefly due to
the unwillingness of the patient to
take what he thinks is a great risk.
He does not know, for he has had no
occasion to inquire into.it, that under
the aseptic treatment of this day. an
operation which was regarded as al
most sure death forty years agois now
held in a very different light in the
modern hospitals. So different, that
perhaps the experience OF a patient IN
what is called a grave operation may
be both interesting and encouraging
to those whose misfortune or-as 1t
proved with me-good fortune it may
be to have to follow in the same path.
The two home doctors, Haller Henkel
and Gibson, had consulted and decld-
ed that there was but one thing to be
done-the interference Of surgery, and
DR.. Henkel, who was the attending
physician, wrote a thick, heavy letter
to DR.. Halstead, the famous Chief Sur
geon of the Johns Hopkins Hospital,
oivino him a history of the case.
Everybody went by that letter for I
found that at the hospital was not
asked a single question as to what was
the matter. arrived at the hospital
in Baltimore on an October afternoon.
The great buildings We're imposing,
the grounds beautiful, and everything
was calculated to make good I'M
preston ON me. If | had to undergo
grave operation, it was a decided
comfort to know that it was to be done
in a great hospital with three and a
half million dollars endowment fund
behind it; it gave me the feeling that
whatever money could get to save life
and health would bealready prepared
there. The feeling was fully verified
when l came to prove it,
l was soon located in room No. II
in Ward c, a private ward. was as
signed to it by tall, rosy-cheek,
handsome head-nurse, withjust enough
of gray hair peeping from under her
nurses cap to give her piQuant look.
She told me that Mr. Lynn Of our
town had been in the same room and
liked it, This was Monday evening,
had not seen the surgeon yet, nor did
see him till Tuesday evening. Then
DR.. Halstead came along. He said he
had read Mr. II. S letter that the op-
Grafton would be so and sol forgot
his technical terms-and that it would
take place Thursday morning | sug-
gested that was very weak, having
been in bed two months, and proba-
bly, delay for me TO strengthen would
be better. "You will never be strong
er until YOU undergo this operation,
said the surgeon, and by the by that
was about the longest speech ! eve>
heard him make never saw mar
of so few words. The next evening
about tea tiWe a nurse came in anc
asked me to give her the name Of any
friend l had in Baltimore and any
friend in Staunton, in case 1t was nee
essarv to address them. | gave the
names and went to the window anc
looked out on the brightly lighted city
below long time Should l see i
tomorrow night? Later, tall, ser
Gus looking young surgeon came il
with a writing pad. He was the his
torian and asked me a long string o
questions about all the earthly aiiiic
tons I and all my ancestors had had
and what we had died of for severa
generations back. Then came tn
maid with supper You had bette
eat a good supper, she said. 1t vii
be some time before YOU have anothe
chance" I told her breakfast was m,
favorite meal. Breakfast , You won
get any breakfast, - and she wen
laughing out of the room. Then cam
, along the male orderly and he battle.
me. put me to bed, made the skin SUI
gicallv clean where the surgeon
knife was to operate-it was an abdo
minal operaton-and put on bandage
of sterilized gauze. then slept tn
sleep of the Just.
In the morning my breakfast was $
. late that rang the bell. The hea
1 nurse of the ward came and withou
. waiting for my inquiry said "Yo
: can't have any breakfast this morning
you are to be etherized." " Not eve
a cup of Coffee" Nothing, and 81
il disappeared through the door, as l sa
5 her do many time aherward when
:, asked for diet she thought 1t best
d should not have, and about which 81
did not propose to argue with me.
lay in bed watching the cornd'