AT A BASE HOSPITAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16041, 6 October 1915, Page 4

AT A BASE HOSPITAL.

NO ; BEDS FOR 100 MEN.

GIFTS GREATLY APPRECIATED. * ] .'.;•!_" We;; are ''right: in the thick of things now, wounded and sick coming in faster than we can take | them," wrote? Nurse \ G»f|§| B. Anderson from the New Zealand Army ' Hospital, •'• Cairo, on August 13, to her ' brother, Mr» W. D. Anderson; of the legal. ■_- firm of Wake and Anderson, . Wyndham Street. :■ The writer continued : " One hundred and . fifty cases came'in the day before ; yesterday, and 81'j came in*;; lay* % night..; Beds and :mattresses' are all round ||| the ''"corridors' and verandahs. /. As : every . few , patients -go out -a fresh batch is put in. and another surgical ward downstairs has '; had to be used f for gastro-enteritis arid dysentery cases. The men say it ' is , just f like Heaven to ;be here, and* one feels that oue cannot 2 "; do*, enough -farS| • thorn. .-..■* Some that we gat are , absolute */. wrecks, but a few/ days* . sleep . and '.baths and feeding, books 'and papers : and | the' chance of - ; seeing some ■"' ordinary ; ■ fellow- mortals and i* a ; few women about soon set them rightagain,/ and theyjhegrof||| to- look as if they had / wakened out of Si :a J sleep. I■■go t; round y; and -; see's that'" they . are all shaved • and tidy, etc, in the morning, -5 and '';feel V' quite' proud '■}, 'of 3»y||[l . flock. 5: j; When §1 - went £ not this « morning I > ; found :"»m) sleeping ion" n^attr« , <sses on every available patch 'of the floor. 100 for whom we i had .| no s beds. I believe >we > are'S tiim§ make our accommodation up to 1000 beds. We feel ■ that ".we, are coins ■ what we care* '; for, ? ;. arid are all I putting everv .'■■' available ounce of 4 ourselves" into the : work. : K»*h sister has a black boy now to do the scrubbing, "and dirfrv work, and -the' lr ; orderlies * can: sive \ all "; their $ time : to " nursing and Turning us. When my.- patknt* reach chicken diet thev get"? wholechicken for dinner every ? day. "They ari« small; but- very tender. * '* ' ' '3r "A number of ' bores. arrived from - New Zealand s'last: week r with sheets andM pyjamas, towels and face sheets, and alls '. sorts £°l* ; necessaries "": for * : : peonle. . H am h sure,; those i who > sent - them' will nev«r : realise how much is they mean "to us. forgl ' *'?55 can never .:.. realise."; in New' I Zealand . "ww; much we ] are :in need of •" them. . . '-■■ We I«ave 650 patient* in the bbsniUL' and are diMiarein? t*>em by fifties and hundreds to make room for new and worse casw-J We have them ?n rente, verandahs and corridors, and th» doctors are ; oneratint from 6 a.m. till the heat of the dav get* ; too great, then : in ; the afternoon iaidS r»«ht oa into the evening and mafct.- ■£*??*: seems ? to -be 4 a verv great :3 rn«iy head.and' J»rm wound* among them. "Tbs men; who left here just a we*k ago ars comnj'r b*ek j now, wounded- '-"•" Thev * W'trSf straight into action when ither.'7arrivf3S It is said that they done'wonderful things at the peninsula, however, arid owls! men ' get the very creates* praise." -