Volume XXII - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Serials Collection
THE HOSPITAL REVIEW
THE HOSPITAL REYIEW.
ROCHESTER. N. Y.. OCTOBER 15. 1885.
The Hospital Inmates.
On the 18th of October we visited the
Hospital and found the lawn deserted; a
damp, chilly atmosphere out of doors was
not tempting to the invalids, and most of
them were within their rooms or the Hospital
Wards.
Sixteen were receiving treatment in the
Female Medical Ward. Two of these
were confined to their cots, both being consuptives.
An aged German woman who
had been blind for seven years, had been
operated upon for cataract, and another
operation will probably be necessary; beside
her sat her husband, evidently seeking
to comfort her with his love and sympathy.
One woman had a gathering in her head
and also diseased lungs. Another woman
with diseased lungs was groaning with pain
in her limbs and side. Most of the inmates
of this ward were afflicted with
chronic diseases; Mrs. McE, who has long
had swelled limbs said they were more uncomfortable
than usual. A dyspeptic patient
had been very sick but was better.
There were fourteen patients in the Female
Surgical Ward. Two of the aged
ones were hobbling about on their canes
and seemed in comfortable condition; one
was familiarly known in the ward as "Grandmother,"
and the German one as " Groszmutter."
In the Cross Ward were two
women suffering from internal tumors;
both were obliged to resort to opiates to
mitigate their pain. The one, a German
woman, about thirty-three years old, was
the mother of five children, and the youngest,
a baby of seventeen months, had been
brought to the Hospital to have its burnt
leg dressed, and she was fondling the little
thing in a motherly, affectionate way. Our
heart ached as we heard her sad story.
Twice a day she receives hyperdermic treatment,
and without this she could not sleep.
Mrs. James, the colored paralytic, who has
so long been an inmate of the Hospital, is
at last released from her sufferings, she
very quietly breathed her last about two
weeks since. Quite a number of patients
were amusing themselves with their needles.
Seventeen were under treatment in the
Male Surgical Ward. Eight of whom
were confined to their cots. One of these
who had a compound fracture of the leg
was doing well, as also was a man whose
arm had been amputated. One patient
while crossing the railroad track had been
struck by the engine and his arm and ankle
fractured. One man had an inflamed foot.
Two deaths had occurred in the ward, the
one, that of a man who was run over by a
cart and injured internally, the other that of
a boy who had been run over on the railroad.
There were seventeen patients in the
Male Medical Ward, only three of whom
were confined to their beds. One of these
was the excema patient, whose convalescence
is so extremely slow that he has to
exercise great patience. He said to us
that Christ suffered without complaining,
and in his cheerful bearing this sick man
beautifully illustrates the sustaining power
of his Christian faith. He is unable to be
dressed; he is wrapped about with sheets
and bears his peculiar trials with fortitude.
One man was convalescing from typhoid
fever, and another who had had trouble
with his eye and knee was improving. Mr.
C, who had been afflicted with asthma and
other diseases had, after a hemorrhage, died.
A Swiss German, a decorative painter, had
also died. An aged paralytic patient said
he felt he was more comfortable and could
get about with less difficulty than formerly.
In the Lying-in-Ward were four mothers
and four babies.
In passing through the Wards we found
pleasant tokens of the visits of the Flower
Mission, which were cherished by the invalids.