TILL THE DOCTOR COMES

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 10, 1887

TILL THE DOCTOR COMES.

At Inverness last summer I saw from a distance a little boy fall from the high wall near the bridge—I being at the other side of the river—a height of probably fifteen feet. A sturdy Highlander marched around and shouldered him. From the shrieks of the lad thus roughly mounted, I felt sure a bone was broken, and found out afterward I was right.

The accident put me in mind to say here that we cannot be too careful in the manner we lift or carry a person who has received an injury of this kind.

Oh! fancy, if you can, the agony produced from, say, a fractured thigh rudely handled, the jagged end of the bone perhaps thrust through the quivering flesh.

Keep a wounded or injured person on the level if possible; be very, very gentle. The handiest of all stretchers is a large shutter or door, with a mattress or pillows on it. Or a plaid or blanket used as a hammock will do, or a net hammock itself if one be handy.

While one party is carrying the injured person home or to a chemist's shop, some one must be sent to procure surgical assistance. The sooner surgical aid is got, the more chance the patient will have of a speedy recovery.

Be careful not to give brandy. You might commit a fatal error!

Just a word about street accidents. Somehow or other, in such cases, one of the crowd usually turns out to be a surgeon; but if not, let one be speedily fetched. Meanwhile, ask the crowd, with all the respect due to crowds in the latter end of the nineteenth century, to stand back and give the patient air. On a summer night he may do better, for a time, out-of-doors than in a shop. I got a man onto a hand-cart once, and there he remained till the accident was dispelled. But I kept the crowd at bay and as quiet as possible. Nothing is more likely to make bad worse than a yelling crowd, crying, "Do this," or, "Do that," round an injured man.—Family Doctor, in Cassell's Family Magazine.