Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-21

bear more directly upon the welfare OF
the travelling public than those of the
American Association of Railway Sur
geons, now in annual session in Chicago.
While the great trunk lines daily are
adopting the most improved methods for
safeguarding passengers and crews, they
are at the same time making great ad-
vances along the line of alienation OF
suffering when, through negligence or
unavoidable circumstances, the toll Of
life and limb is taken.
Today every important railway system
in the country maintains a surgical de-
partment. The chief surgeon has on his
staff a competent physician in every
hamlet along all the lines of the system,
and in some of the more densely pOpu-
lated sections there is surgeon within
five miles of every point on the road, so
that the time required in sending aid to
the injured has been reduced to a mini
mum.
AS soon as a railroad accident ocurs in
which any persons are injured a report
is telegraphed to the chief surgeon. But
before he can forward instructions the
same message has carried the call to the
nearest physician of the system. The
latter goes Immediately to the wreck,
armed with his emergency box If the
number of injured is large the chief sur
geon will order additional help to the
scene Of the disaster, just as a general
would order up reinforcements in
battle.
Usually the local surgeons are required
by the employing road to keep constantly
at hand an emer
Emergency Box sency box con-
Always at Hand. and DRESSINGS for
from fifty to two hundred major wounds.
The emergency box is supposed to be
sealed and never used except in cases of
railroad accidents. When once the seal
is broken the surgeon has instructions
not only to replenish his supply, but to
sterilize afresh all of the bandages which
remain unused.
At the last session of Congress bill
was introduced by a member of the
House, which provided that every train
engaged in interstate traffic must be
equipped with an emergency box. The
bill never was enacted into a law, as the
opposition was very keen. Among the
arguments advanced against the measure
was the statement that in case of wreck
the emergency box would, in nine cases
out of ten. be inaccessible when most
needed. The most potent argument
against the box, however, was that it
would be broken open continuously by
trainmen to get bandages for minor
wounds, and that when real emergency
arose it would be found that the band
ages had become infected. This danger
Gus fact would be overlooked from time
to time by quasi-physicians. who. in their
haste to render aid. would use unclean
dressings, thus producing infection in
wounds which might otherwise yield
readily to treatment. The opponents of
the emergency box urged that competent
physicians always reach the scene OF a
wreck within a short time after the dis
aster, and that the only thing to be done
in the meantime is the staunching of the
flow of blood, and that dressings applied
during the excitement and confusion of
the accident are seldom satisfactory.
X x
In the interest of speed and efficiency
the chief surgeon of one of the largest
railway sys-
Chief Surgeon Uses TENS in the
New Kind of Splints. Gently issued
to his corps of 900 surgeons along the
line a supply of splints which he had
ordered made according to his own ideas
These splints are thirty inches long and
are composed of three strips. each three
fourths Of an inch wide. The strips are
glued to shellacked muslin. so they will be
waterproof. If the broken bone is a
thigh, the full-length, three-piece splint
is used, if a finger, one of the three
fourth-inch segments is cut off to the de-
sired length. If the fracture is a fore
arm, two of the segments are sufficiently
wide. BY having the splints made in
strips they can be rolled together into
small compass and easily carried by
straps, like headless golf sticks When
the three segments are used they can be
made to conform to the curvature of
the limb as there are interstices of an
eighth of an inch between each of the
segments.
A railroad surgeon never attempts to
carry many instruments in an emergency
box, as amputation of limbs at the scene |
of wreck is never imperative. One chief |
surgeon, who had been handling wrecks |
for more than thirty years, gave the fol- |
lowing isolated case of all amputation |
at the scene Of the accident. A brakeman |
had fallen between two freight cars while |
his train was going up mountain side. |
The chief surgeon, who was passenger |
on passing train. saw the fall and rush
ed to the mans side. Both of the latter's |
legs had been crushed below the knees
and when he was lifted to stretcher his
two feet hung merely by the skin. The
only thing to be done was TO stop the flow
Of blood. This was accomplished by
visiting two pairs of suspenders around |