The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-08-16
HOSPITAL RAILWAY CAR
Erie's Plan For Attending to
Injured Passengers.
COMPLETE OPERATING ROOM IN USE

COMPLETE OPERATING ROOM IN USE
All Appliances and Conveniences of
an Up to Date Surgical Outfit Pro-
~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 q 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 a 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 modifica-
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 a stretcher
or a 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, a mattress, a 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 foul low boxes that raise it
a 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 its regu-
lar height. The walls of the car are
white enamel, the iron beds are white
and the ceiling a 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 a bed being carried in from the
hospital, or a 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 corne of the room is a wash
stand which has its own special tank
of absolutely pure water. This water
is distilled and changed frequently so
that it may always be fresh and ready
for use. Beside it, on a stand, is the
sterilizing machine to cleanse the in
struments. When not in use it is
covered with a soft rubber shield.
In another orne of the operating
room stands the surgeons closet, which
Is kept always ready stocked with in
struments and appliances for the use
of injured persons.
Some months ago the surgeon who
has charge Of the car while it stands
In the freight yard at Jersey City felt
sure that every appliance was properly
In its place. Then came a slight
wreck, and several persons were in
jured. When it came to dressing the
wounds the first cry was for safety
pins. There was not one in the closet
It was the only thing that had been
overlooked, and the very next day a
large assortment Of safety pins was
placed upon the shelves, so that when
the next wreck occurs all will be In
readiness.
Along the walls of the car are a doz.
en- folding stretchers, tanks containing
oxygen, axes and saws with which tc
hberate persons pinned under wreck
age, crutches and splints and ever
easy folding chairs of canvas for pa
tients to sit or while waiting their turr
at the hands of the surgeon.
On each of the four walls Of the
operating room is a list Of the surgeons
who are to be called in cases of emer
gency. This list comprises every sec
ton Of the road through its entire
length. The name of the doctor o.
surgeon, his town address, his stree
number, and, if he has a phone, hi
tolophona numhor foo Tloro Ia not