Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1915-07-22
HER F!RSI PATIENT
American Girl Tells Of Expert
ence at the "Front."
Compelled to Hold stretcher-6 earers
to Work, Nurse Has Strenuous
Time Getting Wounded Man
to Surgeons.

An American girl who recently vol
unteered for service with a Red Cross
ambulance In Belgium sends the fol-
lowing account of her first case:
The commandant doctor with
whom | was assigned to work had
taken me far up toward the front,
where a Belgian battery was sta
toned. While he attended to some
trifing injuries, there came the sound
of c~annonading, and news that the
Germans were attacking the very Sec
ton where we were working.
Suddenly, at what seemed the last
minute of safety, two Belgian stretch
er-bearers, without a stretcher, rushed
up to me. They said there was a
man badly wounded somewhere up
the road. l found a stretcher and
went off with them to look for him.
I'VE went on and on. 1t probably
wasn't more than 500 yards. but it
seemed like a very long way; 1t
seemed impossible to find the house.
Then some women came running and
pointed out the place. The stretcher-
bearers hurried off with their stretch
or. / followed.
THE man, horribly hurt, with a
wound like a red pit below his shout
der blades, was brought and laid on
the stretcher. He lay there quietly
on his side, in a posture Of utter res
ignation to anguish.
HE was a Belgian peasant. Sums
lily built; he had a broad, rather ugly
face, narrowing suddenly as the fringe
of his whiskers became a little stray
Cling beard. But to me he was the
most beautiful man / had aver cen
/ loved him. He was my first wound.
ed man!
Il tried-I still try-to persuade
myself that if l hadn't bullied my
two bearers and repulsed an attempt
to get my stretcher away for some
other patient, he would have been
left behind in that little house. We
got him out Of the yard all right,
and on the paved road. Then, to
my horror, the bearers dumped him
down on the paving stones. They
said he was much too heavy. They
couldn't possibly carry him unless
they rested.
II didn't think it was exactly the
moment for resting, and told them
SO in several languages. The Ger,
mans we're likely to come around the
turn in the road at any time. You
never know!
But the bearers stood stolidly in
the middle of the road and mopped
their faces and pulled. The situation
began to be as absurd and terrible
as a nightmare. So / grabbed OF one
end of the stretcher and said l would
carry it myself. | said l wasn't very
strong, and perhaps couldn't do it, buI
anyhow, / would try.
"They picked it up at once then
and started off at a good swinging
trot over the rough paving stones
jolting my poor patient horribly.
suggested that they walk on the
smooth path at the side. They hailet
this suggestion as a most brilliant anC
original idea.
las my patient was brought int
the village where the battery wal
stationed the ambulance had got its
wounded and al ready to go. Blu
he had to have his wound dressed
He lay there in the middle of thu
street and I had to watch while thu
surgeon stuffed his wound with anti
septic gauze. | had always supposed
that the dressing Of a wound was
cautious and delicate process. Blu
it wasn't. There was a careless au
dacity about 1t. The surgeon worket
rapidly, unmoved, as If he were stut
fling an old crate with straw. And |
was all over in a moment or two
There seemed something indecent il
the haste with which my Belgian wa
disposed of.
Then the surgeon remarked cas-
ually that my patients wound didn'
amount to much. 1t looks mucl
worse than it really is he said.
felt hurt, as If this beloved persol
had been sighted, also as If there ha,
been some subtle disparagement o
-, Ga.JbD uM ~. III