SERMONS IN A HOSPITAL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 207, 1 September 1908, Page 6

SERMONS IN A HOSPITAL.

HIJMOUR AND PATHOS

(Westminster, Gazette)

So boundless is the confidence which the authorities at the ''London" inspire in some of their patients that they are often asked for things which only a faith that removes mountains oould expect to be supplied. . For insiiamce, Mr Sydney Holland, the chairman, tells the story of how he met a girl crying, in one of the passages:— ,

"8000. Booo! BoooP" "Well, what is it, little girl?" "Booo!: Booo!" v / "Booo! 8000. F~ may be able to help." "Booo! : 8000. I want to be a Kojaian Catholic I" "So yon shall, and anything else you like!" ' The chairman also tells the following story:,

' 'The Sisters of the London Hospital wear long tails to their caps as a distinctive uniform, and are naturally proud of this mark of superior rank. .The pride of one Sister was somewhat disturbed, by hearing herself thus described by a child: 'I want the nuss 'oo 'as got 'angings oh Jer 'at.'" ■ " ■.. ■■•

One little girl would insist oh calling the Sister of the ward "Lidj1" ! She continued to do so, in spite of all remonstrances. At ltfst she explained: "Well 1 You war a lidy, warn't you, afore you waaja nuss?". ; The toucheaf of unconscious humour so often j supplied by little patients have their counterpart in the pathetic incidents, such as the* following: Teddie was a small patient, who was caught carefully wrapping up his pud-*; ding in his pocket-handkerchief-—dr. rather, in av;square of old linen 'such.! as is given- to the children to do duty as a handkerchief .• ;

"Why, Teddie, what: are you do-/ ing?' " - / . "Well, nuss" he explained, ."I'm only just keeping it for my Nellie;, 'cause it's so "goodj you see, and she. won't get no pudding, she won't I". ~;.-. Nellie. <'.F^fe^4^^»^H?P^f'lP^ ! ]r'»> 'nan*! the; brother"•vftlo^^i^r;^'ite're!■ v .4%A: '■'Voted-jito >each iot%r Z-±- 4^bei£ ■■Itnmr': mother came up tb-the^ hospital, one day Teddie, asked if she: might not take a toy'^which had been given to him.home'to his sister. x The home was a very;'poor one, and,<vas i Teddie, very well knew, neither pudding nor toys were often seen there. But at least Teddie would find love waiting for him in his poor, bare house. This, alas! is not the case "with all the children who' leave the hospital.' : '•• ~ ',- ■ -.-. .... . '/; ''■ • "No! I don't want to go Jome, I don't!" a nuTie once overheard one child saying to another, "Father, 'c beatfeme, 'c does!' And when '©comes 'ome.; the worse:<for drink 'c takes the poker, and mother, she takes the shovel—and we—well, we just jolly well make ourselves scarce—that: we does, I can tell, you!" THE MARVEL-WORKERS: Little East-Enders are liable to many strange and alarming accidents, resulting from the conditions under which they are brought up; and the skill and ingenuity of the surgeons; at the- "London v are often; taxed to the utmost to save them from the' result of such . accidents. :.: What chance,\for instance, wou^d' one imagine tnere could he for a small baby or three months old who was brought to the hospital, having swallowed ah open safety-pin ? ' '.■ Yet, by the help of the Rontgen rays, the pin was located and extracted, and baby went home again none the worse. .'

Another baby had Had a large ('blanket sf-pin jerked into his mouth by his motlier!: She was busy with, her work, poo* woman, and had-laid baby 'down on the; fable out t>f her way. He probably wriggled, she jumped up guidkly to; save nim from falling-, and in §o doing shot the groat, murderous pin out of-her lap straight into his mouth. The Rontgen rays stowed the pin lodged in one of baby's lungs—in a delicate tube very little thicker than the pin itself. It wras a hazardous operation, but the pin w^,s saccessfully removed, and the child's life was saved. ' ~ ■ A small Jewess, aged two, swallowed a coat^buttpn^rnot , a nice, innocent, every-day button—but one with pointed metal pieces at the back of it. The extraction of this button proved to beunusually, <liffieult, aiid it could only 'be effected by an operation in complete darkness. ,The lights of the Eontgen-ray room were all turned down, and, with his eyes on the screen, the surgeon ' watched the shadow of the little instrument which he held while- he guided it lower -and lower towards the shadow of the ■offending button. The bystanders held their breath and peered through the darkness, but they could see nothing. The little long shadow touched the little round one; the button was secured and drawn up, v and little Vera's life was saved. \

The extraction of halfpennies arid ' pennies is an eyery-day operation a€ j • the "London," and the little instru-i ment popularly known as the "coin-; catcher/ is in constant use. It is recorded that upon one occasion a'; small boy, who was about to be oper- ; ated upon for the extraction oT-a': halfpenny, turned refractory. The j whiff of -chloroform which in some cases is found usefulia quieting small j patients had not been thought neces- , saryin his case. But just as the surgeon was getting hold of the coin the boy wrenched himself free, and before anybody could stop him he had seized the ooin-catcher , and flung it into a corner of the room. ,

The instrument was picked up and the surgeon prepared again to operate, but, before doing so, he thought it better to examirie the child again under the Rontgen-rays to see if the halfpenny were still in the same position. It was nowhere to be seen, either in the original place or anywhere else! What was to be done? Suddenly a bright idea struck one of those present. Search was made in the corner of the robm, and'there was the half-penny. The boy had operated upon himself! i . Halfpennies are not always so easy of extraction. A little fellow of four years old, named "Sammy," was brought up. all the way from Ports-, mouth the^ oilier-day 3 l^;tne rOTioyal, of, an obsitkta^e- halfj^nnyV Pc had swallowed it thre;e'weeks before, and, .so-far*, all efforts to extract it had been unsuccessful. This operation, like Vera's, had to be performed in total darkness,' and, guided bjr the unerring Bontgen-rays, the surgeon safely drew u^p the little black coin which, when Sammy had. swallowed it three weeks before, had been a shining brand-new half-penny. The mother's delight was overwhelming when her boy was brought out to her saved. "Say 'God bless tho London .Hospital!' Sammy," she told him. "God bless the London Hospital!" repeated little Sammy. And then the

two went jubilantly back to' Portsmouth., . ,•■■;•■.-./

But there are many other accidents .besides; theiswallp^ihg of "foreign :|^diesV- whwihy^ef '#sL W^aai^d^;cfeiad? small; boy who was brought to ;the "L<>ndori'' with, one' M his Tegs sd'^erribly'smashed that it seemed that only a miracle could save it. He had been run over by a motor-car. A.' Vow being in progress on the other side of ;.the street, Elijah had darted' across, quite heedless of the traffic, with disastrous consequences ,to himself. A few years ago that poor, smashed leg would have been doomed without a question;»but the surgeons set to work to save/it, arid the seeming miibcle took place: Elijah is walking about to-day on his? two legs; / Leah js a little girl of 'three and a half years only, who took it into iier head one day -to- meddle with, a mangle. The result was that three of her fingers were, seemingly, Vcmite hopelessly torn and crushed- . Those three fingers, again, the surgeons at the "London" determined to save. And they saved'them. Leah i$ using those fingers now, and they are not even stiff. , The full history of the marvels achieved by modern surgery is an_ up-to-date hospital such as the^'Londbn would, of course, fill volumes. These, few cases are only such as one hears about in the course of occasional brief visits to the children's wards.