The Liverpool Nightingales, page 8
‘Now, let me get us some tea,’ said Miss Fairchild. ‘You look exhausted already by that hospital. And I want you to tell me everything about everything.’
Maud did get back through the front door in time, but only just. She raced up the stone stairs and managed to get into her dorm just before the evening inspection. Alice was straight in to see her.
‘That was close,’ she said, closing the door quietly behind her, a bit breathless. ‘Is everything all right?’
‘Yes, it is,’ said Maud, still heavy with emotion but also heady with relief, both that Alfred’s plans were all in place, and that she had made it back in time.
‘I need to go now,’ said Alice, ‘but don’t worry, I will watch out for Alfred on the ward. And don’t worry about this inspection. They just do a quick look round at this time of day. Edwina’s not even back yet. She has a big family near the docks and she’s always down there and in trouble for being back late. Just listen out, you’ll know when she’s in; we all will.’
Maud must have been much more exhausted than she thought because after changing into her nightgown, then making sure that her uniform was ready for the next morning before she climbed into bed, she fell asleep with Notes on Nursing open at the first page. She did briefly wake to the sound of some bumping around from the room next door, but was soon back to sleep and dreaming that she was in the big house trying to stack the best china. But no matter how careful she was, every time she picked up a plate it slipped from her grasp, fell to the floor and smashed into pieces. She was still sorting and piling crockery what felt like minutes later when there was a loud knock on her door and the sound of a woman’s voice shouting, ‘Come on, you nurses, time to get up. Rise and shine.’
Maud sat up in bed and looked around her, momentarily terrified by the huge uniform hanging above her. Then she realized where she was and knew that it was time to make a start. Here I go, she thought to herself. Here I go …
5
‘A nurse who rustles … is the horror of a patient.’
Florence Nightingale
‘Nurse Linklater,’ shouted Miss Mary Merryweather from the floor below.
‘Yes,’ shouted Maud, amazed at how clear the superintendent’s voice sounded in her room. Then she had her door open and was leaning over the wooden balustrade of the gallery to see Miss Merryweather looking up at her.
‘You will go to the Male Medical ward today with Nurse Pacey, Edwina Pacey. They are short of staff; two of the nurses have gone down with a fever. You might not stay on there but, for now, that is where you will be working. All right?’ she said, as Maud just carried on looking down at her.
‘Yes, yes, of course,’ said Maud.
‘So,’ said Miss Merryweather, ‘team up with Nurse Pacey – she is your neighbour – and GET CRACKING.’
‘Right, yes, miss, yes, thank you.’ But Miss Merryweather had already gone.
When Maud looked up she saw Nancy Sellers on the opposite gallery, leaning with her elbows on the balustrade, looking at her with an almost but not quite blank expression and the trace of a smile on her face. Maud pulled herself away from the balustrade and turned around, bumping straight into another nurse.
‘Hello,’ said the nurse. ‘I just heard what Miss Merryweather said. I’m Nurse Pacey, Edwina. Everybody calls me Eddy,’ and then in a whisper she added, ‘Don’t take any notice of Nancy over there – she’s not right in the head. Don’t let her intimidate you.’
Maud glanced across to Nancy again but she had slipped back into her room.
‘Thank you,’ said Maud, ‘but I can look after myself.’
‘Good,’ said Eddy. ‘You will need to.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ said Maud, sticking out her arm to shake Edwina’s hand.
‘It’s a pleasure,’ said Edwina with a broad smile and eyes that shone with good humour. Straight away Maud thought, I’m going to be all right here with Eddy. She knew immediately that Nurse Pacey was a very good sort indeed.
As they walked to the hospital Eddy told her that the Male Medical ward was very busy and the work was hard but the Sister – Sister Cleary – was kind, and that meant a lot. In fact it was the thing that mattered most on the wards. If you had a good, kind, sympathetic Sister it made a whole world of difference. Even if she was strict and a real stickler, it made things so much easier for the nurses and the patients.
Maud had already seen what impact Sister Law had on Alfred’s ward and knew that Eddy was probably right, but the thing about Eddy was – and anyone meeting her for the first time would pick up on this immediately – she never stopped talking. She talked so fast about any number of things all at the same time that it was difficult to follow her many trains of thought. Yes, Maud got the gist of what she was saying, but all of the extra detail around it made her head spin.
Of course, Maud had taken to her instantly, but Maud was a natural stickler herself and she really just wanted to tell Eddy to stand still for a minute so that she could tidy up the strands of curly hair that were falling across her face. She definitely wanted to straighten up her cap, which was not only crooked but looked like it had been sat on, squashed flat and then hastily pulled back into shape. Maud had to try to stop herself looking at the cap, but as Eddy chatted on and on she couldn’t help her eyes being drawn to it and the horror of its disarray.
Eddy had been right about Sister Cleary, though. She was strict but she had very kind eyes, and although the ward was packed out with patients and clearly very busy, she took time to speak to the nurses individually as she advised them of their duties.
‘Right, Nurse Pacey, you have been here a couple of weeks now, haven’t you? And I know that you have applied leeches under supervision.’ Maud felt her skin crawl immediately as she heard mention of the creatures. She had seen them used by the physician who attended the family at the big house, and she couldn’t bear the things, especially after they were removed from the skin and placed back in a jar, swollen with a patient’s blood. It made her shudder just thinking about it.
‘So do you think you would be able to apply some leeches to the man in bed four, Mr Hollingsworth? He was admitted last night with congestion of the lungs and a suspected kidney ailment. The doctors want to try bleeding him first to see if that makes any difference. Do you think you could apply two leeches to his sternum for me?’
Maud saw Eddy already nodding enthusiastically, her eyes shining.
‘And then can you keep an eye on them, keep checking and call me when they are ready for removal?’
‘Yes, Sister,’ said Eddy, turning to Maud, who had gone very pale indeed.
‘Are you all right?’ said Eddy. ‘I know some people don’t like them at first but you’ll soon get used to it.’
Maud nodded carefully, feeling her stomach starting to churn but she knew that she had no choice. She would just have to get used to it – to all of it, leeches included. She could hear Sister’s voice but it sounded like it was at a bit of a distance. Maud took a deep breath to stop herself from feeling faint and Sister came back into focus.
‘So if you could show Nurse Linklater the procedure, I would be very grateful indeed. As you can see, with all the new cases that have been admitted overnight we are going to be really pushed for a few days. Some of the medical cases have had to be accommodated on the Male Surgical ward, yet again. There just aren’t enough beds, or enough nurses, to go round.’
‘Right, Sister,’ said Eddy with a glint in her eye, and then to Maud: ‘Let’s get it done. First we need to collect the leech jar and then select two lively ones.’
‘Lively ones?’ said Maud, taking another deep breath.
‘Yes,’ said Eddy. ‘Do you not remember— Oh, I forgot, you’ve only just started. We did enemas, leeches and mustard poultices in the first lecture that Mr Fawcett gave, but you missed that one. Well, I’ve done leeches a few times with Sister so I can show you. And I’ve done enemas as well, so I can show you that in due course, but for now we’ll stick to the leeches.’ Then Eddy cracked up laughing. ‘Just realized what I said: “stick to the leeches”, ha ha ha, do you get the joke?’
But Maud just felt bewildered.
‘Come on, Maud, no time to lose,’ said Eddy, clapping her on the back and nearly knocking the wind out of her.
‘This is where we’ll find the little blighters,’ she added with relish, leading on.
Maud watched as Eddy removed a large jar from the ward store cupboard, tucking it under her arm, and then she seemed to be looking along the shelf for something else. ‘Now they usually have some smaller pots so that you can put the selected leeches into them to take to the patient’s bedside, but I can’t seem to find any here and we don’t really have time to go looking, so just this once, I’ll take the big jar with us.’
‘Are you sure that’s a good idea …?’ said Maud, her voice trailing off as Eddy was already half-way down the ward.
She needed to walk briskly to catch up and by the time that she did Eddy had already found bed four where Mr Hollingsworth had just shot upright after Eddy greeted him in quite a loud voice and told him that she had come to apply some leeches to him.
‘Well, I don’t really like those things that much,’ he was saying as Eddy set the large jar down next to him on the bed. ‘They give me the shivers, but if the doc thinks they might help me chest then you need to have a go, I suppose.’
‘Right, thank you, Mr Hollingsworth. I will select two and apply them to your sternum.’ When he looked puzzled Eddy added, ‘The sternum is just another name for the breastbone,’ and Maud could see her smiling, probably at her own newly acquired medical knowledge. Maud was also impressed; she had never heard that word so she tucked it away in her memory for future use.
In moments Eddy was unscrewing the lid of the jar. ‘Darn,’ she said, ‘we usually use a long pair of forceps to pull them out but I must have left them in the cupboard … never mind,’ she muttered, plunging her hand into the jar and fishing around inside. Maud simply could not look. She knew that she should – she knew that she would have to in due course – but right there and then she could not look at Eddy or the jar.
She heard Eddy say, ‘Ha-ha, that’s a good one,’ and that’s when she made herself look up to see Eddy with a large leech in her hand. Maud felt her stomach heave but she was determined to focus on what Eddy did with the leech. Mr Hollingsworth already had his shirt open and Eddy simply held the leech in place on his breastbone until it had fastened itself there. It seemed easy, if you could bear to touch a leech.
Then Eddy was back to the big jar and fishing around in there again until another specimen was removed and applied in a similar way to the middle of Mr Hollingsworth’s chest. Maud could see the patient looking down at the two leeches, his eyes wide, and then Eddy gently pulled his shirt over to cover them and told him she would be back every half-hour to check that they were still safely applied and doing the job. Mr Hollingsworth gulped and then tried to smile, but Maud could see that he was almost as troubled by leeches as she was. But at least that seemed to be it for the time being, and Maud started to relax a little when she saw Eddy putting the lid back on the big jar.
Eddy was straight off down the ward with the leeches, leaving Mr Hollingsworth sitting bolt upright in the bed, his face rigid. Maud went to him and patted his arm, keeping an eye on his shirt front, just in case.
‘You will be all right,’ she said, trying to smile. ‘They use leeches all the time on the wards and they will do the job for you. Just try to keep still and relax a little if you can.’
He looked at her and nodded, still holding his shoulders square but she could see in his eyes that he appreciated her words and he tried to smile in return.
‘Thank you, Nurse,’ he said. ‘I’ll manage, I’ll still be sat here when you get back, don’t you worry.’
‘I’d best go and catch up with Nurse Pacey, but we’ll both be back soon.’
‘Now,’ said Eddy, closing the door of the cupboard where she had jostled around any number of containers and pieces of equipment to replace the jar of leeches, ‘let’s go and find Sister and see what other duties she has for us.’
Before they could even begin to find Sister Cleary, however, they heard a blood-curdling scream from the direction of Mr Hollingsworth’s bed and when they turned as one they could see him dancing up and down by the side of the bed very vigorously indeed for a man with a bad chest.
‘Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ,’ he was shouting. ‘Get them off me, get them off me!’
Eddy was straight there, closely followed by Maud.
‘Get them off me, get them off me!’ shouted the man again, as Maud saw Eddy pull aside the man’s shirt to expose the leeches still firmly attached.
‘Not those, not those! Bloody hell, bloody hell!’ yelled the man, and then Maud saw what the issue was. Poor Mr Hollingsworth had three more leeches attached to his lower leg and he was frantically trying to shake them off.
‘Whatever is going on, Nurse Pacey?’ shouted Sister as she steamed down the ward. ‘I told you to apply two leeches to the sternum, not three to the leg.’
‘I did,’ said Eddy. ‘They must have got out of the jar.’
‘What!’ said Sister. ‘Nurse Pacey, you know that we never take the big jar to the bedside. One of the reasons why we do not take all of the leeches is that they are naturally drawn to any warm body.’
By this time Maud had managed to grab hold of Mr Hollingsworth, who had started to cough and wheeze, and persuaded him to stop dancing about and get back on the bed. Then Sister was apologizing and neatly removing the three rogue leeches from his leg.
Eddy stood by with her head down whilst Sister Cleary and Maud soothed the patient and made a thorough check of his bed to make sure no more leeches were lurking in the sheets. Then Sister came over to Eddy and gave her the three leeches, which were firmly wrapped in a handkerchief.
‘Why exactly did you take the big jar to the patient’s bed?’ she said.
‘Well, there were no small pots. I knew we were busy and I just wanted to get on with it, and then we could come and help with the rest of the patients.’
‘Well, Nurse Pacey, your rushing has caused unnecessary distress to this patient and on this ward. Even at the busiest of times – especially at the busiest of times – I do not want any rushing or cutting of corners. What do I keep telling all of you nurses? What is Miss Nightingale’s first rule? The first rule is that we do our patients no harm. Now take these leeches straight back to the jar and make very sure that the lid is on tight.’
‘Yes, Sister,’ said Eddy quietly, and Maud’s heart went out to her.
‘Look, Nurse Pacey,’ said Sister in a gentler voice, ‘I know you mean well and you have the makings of an excellent nurse, but you just need to slow down. Do you understand? Now go along and get a bandage to apply to Mr Hollingsworth’s leg. There will be some blood seepage from those unexpected puncture wounds on his lower leg.’
‘Yes, Sister,’ said Eddy, starting to get some life back into her voice.
After the incident with the leeches, Sister Cleary asked Maud to work with one of the more experienced nurses for the rest of the day and although Maud did feel a little sad for Eddy, she was glad of the decision. She needed to move at a slower, more considered pace, especially since, on this her first day on the ward, she was exposed to sights that were not commonplace for a single woman with a careful upbringing like Maud. She was exposed to the body parts of men. She had never seen so much as an exposed chest or thigh before, but in one day it was all out there on display. So much flesh. Most of the patients were old men, but there were some young ones and they were the worst. They had so much firm flesh and so much hair, it made her blush just to think about it.
As Maud moved alongside the nurse from bed to bed and task to task, she almost felt dizzy with the pace of the work. And with each new case, she tried really hard to become accustomed to their state of undress. The nurse that she was working with kept saying, ‘Don’t you worry, you’ll get used to it,’ but it was strange: she had been worried that she was squeamish and wouldn’t be able to manage the gory stuff, but she had seen any number of deep, festering ulcers and a severe burn with no problem at all. It was the flesh of the men she was struggling to cope with. Maybe she would only enjoy working on women’s wards. That’s if she got through the training.
Later that day she caught up with Eddy and they teamed up together again. Sister had asked them to replace a dressing, one that Eddy had done before and she was trusted to do again.
‘This is a bit of a nasty one,’ said Eddy over her shoulder as they hurtled down the ward. ‘The patient has a large bed sore – do you know what that is?’
‘No,’ said Maud, slightly out of breath and thankful that Eddy seemed to be slowing up as they approached the store cupboard.
‘Well,’ said Eddy, turning to face her with a solemn expression, ‘Sister is quite cross about this because these sores can be prevented by making sure that a patient moves position in the bed every two hours. The man, Mr Latimer, was admitted with congestion of the lungs and that has been improving, but the nurse assigned to him on his first day left him sitting in the same position all day and he has a nasty sore now on his sacrum – that’s at the bottom of his back. It’s quite deep and it’s started to suppurate. We are packing it each day but it doesn’t look good for him. Sister thinks that he probably won’t do well.’
‘That’s terrible,’ said Maud, feeling for the poor man who had been admitted to hospital for one thing but now sounded like he was dying from another.
Eddy collected the dressings tray, a big wad of lint, a bottle of iodine and some bandages. When they got to the bed Maud was shocked to see how poorly the patient looked, lying on his side, his breathing quite laboured and a very bad smell emanating from under the bedclothes.
Maud stood by as Eddy spoke gently to the patient and explained what they were going to do. Then she carefully removed the big dressing from his back. Next she soaked the lint in iodine and pushed it into the deep hole, asking Maud to help with the bandage that needed to go all the way around the man’s torso to hold it in place.
