THE HOUSE OF PAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18629, 9 February 1924, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE HOUSE OF PAIN.

SERVICE OF HOSPITALS TO HUMANITY. BY. CHAS. 11. C. WORTHINGTON. The wards of a great hospital see the closing chapters of life's history, all the works of past years, all hopes, all fears come to fruition. Here is the epitome of life's misfortunes or mispent days; the two great factors in suffering are here merged in the final issue. Who shall draw the dividing line, who bold enough to sit in judgment ? No man or woman knows to the individual the driving power of temptation, none know the influences of environment. Heredity and influences in tho course of life's battle assail each and everyone. Here in the silent ward drenched with sunlight is no room for causative speculation. A hospital staff knows no discrimination. The responsible head to the youngest probationer exist only to mend the ravages of time, accident, or disease in those that come under their care. It is their duty, and incidentally in the course of that duty they pour out a wealth of loving kindness and sympathy that heals, not alone the body, but the mind warped and distorted by pain and abandoned hope, The hospital ward is a great medium of education and when discursive publicists expand themselves upon the necessity of curtailing hospital expenses it is well before concurring with them to visit one of these great institutions and weigh the evidence first hand. The tabulist tells of the value of a human life to the State, what its worth at the cradle, what its economic value through the varying years, what its pro-. ducing power, the factor that means national prosperity. It is not necessary to quote figures. The little informative printlets of assurance companies will enlighten the seeker after concrete data, the statistician will also assist. In poster type should the fact be stressed, "That not only does one permanent disablement mean the loss of a producer to the State, but it means that some other producer has to support him at the expense of his or her efficiency." A maimed life is a dual injury to the body economic, apart from the entirely human aspect, the suffering of the individual, and the grief of his relatives. In The Long White Ward. Let us pin this point down by' the observations gleaned in the long white ward this hot summer's day. Just reaching adolescence lies a youth recovering from orthopaedic treatment. Infantile paralysis had left him an apparent hopeless wreck, a burden to himself and State, if unaided. Now, in a few months, he will be able to take up his share in the world's work and be alive again. Next to him, for four years a cripple, nerves and muscles of leg destroyed by a horse's kick, involving complete wastage and loss of action, now grafting of muscles and restoration of nerves has placed him in the position of resuming his —a farmer tilling his own land. A burst of complaint in the resonant burr reminiscent of H. Lauder, of Scotland, to the effect that something is " tearing the verra hide aft me," proclaims that the owner of a leg to which a score of pounds of clock weights are attached is coming into his: own again. A stalwart, powerful man, he is recovering from a broken thigh and contusions caused by a log rolling on him at Mokai. In six weeks more he will be a wage-earner again. The serene silence of the long white ward is disturbed. A nursing sistei is passing to give temporary relief and prepare for the operating theatre a young man. An hour ago he was' five miles away, lying by the roadside, after a heavy fall from his horse; an hour hence he will be back from the operating theatre, on the road to recovery. Here an observation case (abdominal), there a Maori, one fingeir remaining out of a bandaged stump— circular saw had taken the rest. More infantile cases, and so on through the long range of white-quilted beds. Such a scene as this is to be witnessed in a hundred hospitals throughout New Zealand day by day. Efficiency, promptness, that instant skilled attention, is the essential to successful treatment. That hour's delay may mean a life, unreadiness a lifetime disablement. The life is computable in loss to the State, but the disablement may mean not alone the capital loss, but the drain of tiae upkeep of an unfit for half a century, apart from suffering. Complex Administration. In general administration of hospitals great economies have been needed, and are being carried out, but there is a limit to this curtailment. It is almost impossible to bring homo to the average healthy mind the extraordinarily complex nature of hospital management, how much detail in every department requires direct skilled supervision. There is no " near enough " when you fight -with death, A neglect in sanitation means sepsis, a neglect in dietary a relapse, a neglect in the administration of drugs a grave for somebody. Every unit of the hospital machine must work to time. Over all this human mechanism the medical superintendent and staff have to keep constant watch, both by night and by day. There must be a complete chain, with no weak links.

An impression that hospital medical and nursing staffs are overpaid is prevalent. This impression is - worth traversing, beginning at the top— surgeon. Of all professional men, the statistician tells us that the surgeon is the shortest-lived. The cause is not hard to find. His period of maximum efficiency is brief, his risks proportionately great. The injury to a nerve of a single finger may, when at the height of his' operative capacity, utterly destroy his value as a ' urgeon. After a prolonged and highly specialised expensive course of training, often involving great sacrifice by parents or guardians, the surgeon's position has yet to be gained. There are but few at the top cf the profession. In the hospital no hour of the day is his own. The modern science of healing knows no operative hours. • Interviewing sorrowing relatives, breaking sad news, is not the least of trials that the hospital surgeon has to face. The wakeful in the long white ward knows somewhat of the surgeon's midnight vigils. He hear- the whispered inquiries to the night nurse in the small cold hours before the dawn. He knows the muffled roll of pneumatic tyres that tells of urgent operations, the. indefinable noises that speak of tragic happenings of the night. The nursing sisters, tho trained staff, without whom the best operator would be unable to attack serious cases without grave —what of them? They, too, have to undergo specialised training and acquire knowledge of anatomy and the science of healing that in past years was the sole field of the surgeon and medical man. Many young women start' on the lower rungs of the nursing ladder, become dismayed at the hard work, the wearying routine, the rigid discipline, and step to earth again. The hardy and great of soul remain. Nursing becomes to them a religion on the sltar of which they sacrifice ' their youth, their freedom, and hopes of motherhood. The splendid uplift of this. the noblest profession for women, given by the great war and its terrible aftermath, has awakened the public conscience to the true recognition of :he nursing status. Into cold terms of cash values it is impossible to convert the services of doctor, surgeon, or trained nursing sister. There is nothing in currency at any rate of exchange that commands its equivalent, it is the combined service of head, heart, and hand, that cannot be converted. Pass down the long white ward this hot summer day and, if the great God is kind to you, some sense of the great service to humanity given to the world by the devotion to duty by hospital .staff may be flicked down to you through the dancing shadows! of the restless blinds. And you too will understand.