SUCCOUR FOR THE SICK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17008, 15 November 1918, Page 4

SUCCOUR FOR THE SICK.

WORK IN DEPOT AND HOME.

HELPERS' VARIED EXPERIENCES.

Tho St. John Ambulance Association's depot in Rutland Street is the scene of great activity these days.

Throughout the day, there la now a constant procession of cars dashing up, or away from, the depot. Inside, everyone was working at top speed, some preparing stores to be sent out, others answering innumerable inquiries or directing the efforts of the volunteer workers. Through the office itself passed a steady stream of visitors or workers; the pressure of work seemed almost overwhelming, but it was faced with an efficient calmness that met all needs.

The office is a centra for request* from everywhere. A viurse came hurrying in, made a brief report, was handed a list of new cases, and hurried out again. An elderly man, in a state of great agitation, stopped her. " I want to report a most urgent case," he panted, " Man sick, had a relapse; must be attended to at once. No delay 1" The nurse hattily referred him to the director of the office. "They are all urgent cases these days," she remarked. " I dashed off to one an hour agoman supposed to be dying, Bnd found him sitting up in bed eating stewed rabbit!"

No conversations are ever completed without interruption at the office, "the telephone bell rang unceasingly for 12 hours, when the first rush of work was on," said one of the workers. "It gets more than a little trying under present conditions, but we do our beat to meet every case." Requests from doctors for the removal of the sick, directions as to equipment to bo taken to serious cases, demands for motor-cars to take the workers to their destinations, and an infinite variety of miscellaneous inquiries are all attended to as they come in, and, under present conditions, they are coming in every hour in the'twenty-four, pressure of work having made it necessary that the depot shall remain open both day and night A feature of tho work is the care taken for the immediate needs of patients. Medicine, emergency foods, and light prepared food from the Women's National Reserve depot, are sent out with every worker, a trained nurse going out with the ambulanco car to all urgent cases. Some of the hardest work is that performed in the stricken homes. One man, who has been untiring in his efforts, found one family of nine, where seven were ill, including the parents. Before he left he bathed and tended the sick children, and then hurried back for some necessary clothing. In another sad case he found every member of the family sick and a dead baby lying on the verandah, where it had been for two days. It is in cases l'ke this that these men and flomen volunteers are doing heroic service.

In speaking of the work vesterdnv. one of the officers of the association expressed high appreciation of the assistance now being given by a large number of motorcar owners. "Wo were greatly hampered for transport facilities at first," he said. " but these citizens who have now come to our aid are helping us splendidly. Some of them give, perhaps, an hour or two daily to our work, and others are with us from morning until midnight. I cannot sufficiently express our gratitude for this timely help." The Women's National Reserve continues to do splendid service in supplying food for sufferers. The work has now been capably organised, and the distribution is Heine carried ou 4 , exped'tiously and very thoroughly. There are many homes in the city at the present time which loir.' ere this would have faced starvation had it not been for the splendid efforts of the reserva A tour of one of the poorer streets of the yesterday showed that the needs of the sick had been nob'.y met. In one bouse a man was found just recovering from a severe attack: he said he had been in sore need last week, but just when things began to look very serious help came, and soon the boy scouts had appeared on the scene with nourishing food. On all hands praise and gratitude were expressed for the assistance thus given. The reserve is also assisting several necessitous cases with supplies cf ptoceries, donation! for th's pnr|x*e having been made bv sympathetic friends. These goods are supplied only in cases of acute necessity.