The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1920-03-16
CARING FOR THE SICK.
|NTH|S COMMUNITY
SPECIAL REPORT OF INFLUENZA
EPIDEMIC OF 1920, LAKE
COUNTY.

influenza became epidemic in Lake
county. The first cases were in the
south part of the county and il
spread rapidly until by the middle OF
feDruary every community in the
county had some cases. AS one
would expect, many families were all
SICK at once and help was hard to
get
In order to help with the epidemic
and get a line on all nursing help.
the Red Cross, Merchants associa-
tlon and Community and School
Nurse association united to establish
headquarters for the nurses and
other help. This headquarters was
in the Merchants association offices
and Mr.. Rowland took charge. Dur
ing the first two weeks of the epi-
dem1c he answered as many as 30
phone calls per day asking for helm.
Inese calls came from all over the
county and some in other counties
Ihe office sent out hired men to do
cnores to about ten homes, nurses to
Zo homes and IL to help with house
work. Other homes that needed helm
were taken care of through tho
county nurse and her assistants Tho
nome service department, through
their secretary, Miss Ora Kelley.
cared for % families that were sick
with influenza; made "A calls: 10
calls on physicians; IL calls to Sc
cure help, and answered 145 phone
calls. Miss Kelley took temperature
gave baths, made mustard plasters.
called doctors and did all sorts of
work, besides obt'ining provisions
that the families ne led. Some fam
lies that could not get a nurse or
doctor were sick an6 got well under
the sole care of the home service de-
partment.
Early in the epidemic the demands
for the county nurse became more
than one nurse could attend to so the
Lake County Community and Nurse
association employed Miss Anna
Christianson to help the county
nurse. Miss Christianson cared for
the cases in town and Miss Wilkin
worked in the country. All families
who called at the office were visited
and as many others as possible.
Miss Genevieve Holdridge assisted
Miss Wilkin and Miss Florence Grif-
Tin helped Miss Christianson. All
kinds of work was done. We made
beds, gave baths and other treat
ments. gave medicine and applied
plasters, washed dishes, cooked
meals, scrubbed floors and did nu-
merous other tasks. In many in
stances the whole family was sick
and all the help they had was when
the nurse called. One family where
the father and mother both had pneu-
monia, there was only a 10-year-old
girl to wait on them, except when the
nurse called. One woman had to
have medicine given hypodermicly
and the nurse called twice a day to
give the medicine. One family, all
sick, had no help and the nurse and
her helperSwere there nearly all one
afternoon making beds and giving
baths and treatments. The father
died but the mother and children got
well and that mother is sure the
nurse saved their lives. Many other
instances could be sighted Of appre-
ciation Of the help we were able to
render. Calls were made in nearly
every township in the county. The
county nurse drove nearly 1000 miles
during the epidemic. Many calls
were made to instruct the family on
proper methods of nursing and many
cases were saved serious complica-
tions by obeying the proper instruc-
tions. One mother was found sitting
on the side of her bed with a tenn
perature of 103 degrees trying to
take care of her baby. We told the
family that it was easier to care for
the baby while the mother had the
FLU" than while she had pneumo-
mia. The mother went to bed and
got will within a few days. Another
mother that was quite seriously sick
with the "flu" followed the nurses
orders carefully and was able to
nurse her weeks old baby and got
well without the baby getting the
"flu."
Fifty families were cared for BY
the nurses, $50 calls were made, $50
influenza cases were cared for, 20
pneumonia cases, and we had about
800 phone calls. We received three
calls to 60 out of Lake county TO help
but of course could not go a. the
work in the county was more than
we could attend to.
Some extra expense was attached
to the work. We had to hire q taxi
to send out help, also to take the
nurse from place to place when the
Red Cross car was busy. Some drugs
and supplies had to be paid for and
in some instances nurses had to be
paid. This extra expense totaled
$3.50. The county commissioners