The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-12-28
HOSPITALS HAVE nsAvss.

Everything Goes Wrong.
Three women in q popular tea room
the other afternoon had just welcom-
ed a belated friend. As the new
conner received her cup Of tea her
hand shook 30 that the china ratified.
That's what comes of being in a
hospital on one of It's bad days" she
said with a little laugh. Every nerve
| have is quivering."
did anything happen| asked a
particularly placid member of the
group.
Happen! Something always hap
pens in a hospital. Rpt the queer
thing about 1t is that no matter what
happens the general atmosphere will
be quite calm and cheerful until all
OF sudden a day comes when the
whole institution seems to be as am
now, all OF nervous CULVER.
you know I've been spending most
of my time lately with my mother in
- Hospital She is getting along
nicely and read to her or we talk,
and occasionally make little round
Of calls In the rooms near hers and
| bring back news to her of her neigh
bors, most OF whom she has never
seen
Generally there Is something rath-
er restful to me in being there The
nurses go about qnickly and cheer
fully, the doctor comes with his morn
ing joke, one sees flowers and visitors
going to the different rooms and one
has a feeling OF hopefulness about
everybody.
"0ne gets used even to the smell of
the disinfectants and to the OCCASION
al moans. II these are especially bad
you say cheerfully:
Somebody's coming out from un-
der the anesthetic. He'll feel better
soon"
you hear nurse humming to her.
floor there is young fellow, operated
on for appendicitis a little while ago,
who whistles softly when he can't
think of anything else to do. All the
doors stand open, and the whole life
OF the institution seems to be going
smoothly and pleasantly.
Then all of a sudden everything is
changed. i knew this morning the
moment | got above the first floor
that things were not going well
%
Mother was trying in vain to tell two
nurses how to place her In a com
Portable position. They couldn't get
her fixed right. OF course they could
not This was the day when nothing
was right for anybody.
"She let them go when | came In,
but she was in the state of nerves
where she jumped almost out of her
bandages when nurse dropped a
dish somewhere down the hall Nurs-
es always drop things on such days
anyway.
81 hadn't been in the room two
minutes before wailing moan began
next door. The two rooms had
communicating door, though why in
the name of all that is sensible II
should have been put there don't
know. AT any rate II made the means
from next door quite as audible as II
they had been In our own room.
"And they were such unacceptable
moans long and waillng and mingled
with broken ordinations, that you
couldn't help trying to interpret,
though you didn't want to know what
they were. had left the door into
the hall open and no sooner had
mothers neighbor begun to groan
than somebody else across the hail
Joined, but with little staccato grunts
and sighs that you could hear all
over the floor.
81 went to the door to close It, A
nurse rushed by with a nervous, pre-
occupied expression. The house doc
tor passed with scarcely good morn
ing
Il could hear the bells ringing in
the nurses room at the end of the
hall, as II every patient on the floor
had finger on the push button and
meant to keep 1t there till response
came.
81 went back into the room, but the
moaning next door went on and on
till thought should scream myself
| had left the transom open and
could hear nurses scurrying up and
down the hall, low exclamations,
doors opening and shutting, the rum
BILE OF the cart bringing patient
from the operating room.
81 saw the head nurse before |
came away and asked her If there had
been anything unusual in the way OF
operations, or II any patient had died
or anything really out of the ordinary
happened Not thing! 1T was just a
bad day.
"They come about once In SO often
and it's like a zoo then. You've been
in a menagerie when a sort OF wave
OF unrest goes through II, haven't
you? II spreads from cage to cage
until all the animals are bowling, or
roaring, or Swapping, and even the
crowd gets nervous and the keepers
are cross and there is general pow
WOW.
IalI LII 4.