Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1904-08-05
HOSPITAL RAILWAY CAR
Erie's Plan For Attending to
Injured Passengers.
COMPLETE OPERATING ROOM IN USE

an Up to Date Surgical Outht FRO
vided-Even safety Pins, Overlook
ed In First Accident, Now at Hand.
Doctors Quickly Summoned.
Plans were completed by the Erie
railroad for the introduction of num-
Der of hospital or ambulance cars, with
which to cope with the effects of col
lisions or other accidents, says the
Brooklyn Eagle. For over a year the
railroad has been quietly experiment.
ing with the ordinary car.
Instead Of having to rely upon local
hospitals or improvised ambulances IN
cases where either employees or pas
sengers have been hurt, the company
has been able to send at once to the
scene of any trouble perfectly fitted
car, wherein all the appliances needed
by the surgeon for caring for the in
jured were at hand.
The car that has been in use as an
experiment is merely an ordinary day
coach, from which the seats have been
| taken. The car has been divided into
| an operating room and a room wherein
eight beds, all ready for patients, are
disposed along the two sides Of the
center aisle. This arrangement will be
followed out in the new cars about to
be built, but with important modiflca-
lions and improvements.
In the first place, the new cars will
be more stoutly built and hung upon
easier springs, so that in transit the
patients will feel the minimum jar and
jolt The doors at each end of the new
car will be sufficiently wide to permit
beds to be carried through them. In
addition to these end doors there are
also doors ON either side Of the oper-
ating rooms, which fold on double
hinges and through which stretcher
or bed can be passed with ease.
Three-fourths of the length of the
car is taken up by two rows of beds,
four being in each row. The beds are
single iron bedsteads, having a fine
steel spring mattress, rubber sheet
and above that the regular bedding ac-
cording to the season Of the year. The
coverlets are. white and neat and the
blankets are gray army blankets that
are light and yet warm. Each bed
stands on four low boxes that raise ii
bit from the floor Other boxes of
different heights are provided, SO that
the bed in case of necessity may be
raised two feet or less above it's regu-
lar height The walls Of the car are
white enamel, the iron beds are white
and the ceiling q soft gray.
The operating room is amply large to
care for patients who require the most
delicate operations. 1t is about four
teen feet long and the full width of the
car. There are four doors, one on every
side, SO that an injured person may be
carried into the room from any direc.
ton. The doors are wide enough to per
NIT bed being carried in from the
hospital, or q stretcher may be passed
In through one of the side doors and
the patient laid on the glass and white
enamel operating chair.
, In one corner of the room is a wash
, stand. which has its own special tanl
Of absolutely pure water. This water
is distilled and changed frequently SC
that 1t may always be fresh and read,
for use. Beside 1t, on stand is th,
= sterilizing machine to cleanse the in
: struments When not in use it II
|, covered with a soft rubber shield.
l In another corner OF the operate
D room stands the surgeons closet, which
) Is kept always ready stocked with in
8 struments and appliances for the us,
of injured persons
e Some months ago the surgeon VIII,
s has charge Of the ear while it stand
l IN the freight yard at Jersey City fel
a sure that every appliance was properl,
= IN its place. Then came a Sigh
wreck, and several persons were in
Jured. When it came to dressing th
wounds the first cryotw for safet,
O pins. There was not one in the closet
= 1t was the only thing that had beel
. overlooked, and the very next day
n large assortment Of safety pins wa
/ placed upon the shelves, SO that whel
the next wreck occurs all will be il
readiness.
Along the walls of the car are a doz
en- folding stretchers, tanks containin
10 oxygen, axes and saws with which t
- iberate persons pinned under wreck
age, crutches and splints and eve
70 easy folding chairs. of canvas for pa