VALUE OF A NURSE'S FINGER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 16892, 9 February 1917, Page 5

VALUE OF A NURSE'S FINGER.

FIANCE WOULD STILL WED HER ; IF ONLY A STUMP LEFT.

What is the value of the index finger •' toa.nurse.ageOO?, * - ' This was/a question for decision at the Clerkenwell jQounty Court, London, recently. ■ Miss May Knight, of Southampton, asked for an award tnder the Workmen's Compensation Act from the London Fever Hospital. While disin- " fecting some, hairpins belonging1 to a' patient she pricked her finger, erysipelas ensued in it, and she lost the use of if. This was on September 30, 1915. in 'May a doctor told her she .would be all' right if she had a portion of the finger removed. Counsel submited that a girl of marriageable age would be most unwise if she submitted to the .operation, but Miss Knight admitted that her fiance had not refused to marry her if she had the finger amputated. If he came back from the war, bavin"had his right Tiand shot off,: would you refuse to marry him ?—Of couse not. Judge Roberts said he could not con- ' ' ader what effect an amputation would ' have from a purely aesthetic point of view. •" The. medical assessor thought , , tnot the loss of the two joiniJs" would af- ! feet the applicant's chance of employ- ( ment in private practice to a certain ex- ! tent—in cases where patients were par- i ticulariv fidgety and objected to a nurse •' who had lost a portion of one finger j but for .hospital work it would not affect - ~ln ■ held that at present she was!' totally mcapicitattd, and was entitled ! to compensation at- the' rate of 14s 7d ' per week from the time she1 left the hospital m July.