A Letter from the American Hospital of Paris

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume VIII, Issue 2, 1 April 1915, Page 109

A Letter from the American Hospital of Paris

Section for the Wounded

January 22nd. I have been here since the beginning of October ; came over with ten English nurses, and have been busy doing various nursing, special and ward. A priest was brought in shot through the face and the upper jaw fractured. He got on so well under the charge of the American dentist here who fixes up the jaw cases wonderfully. So many of the French get wounded in the face ; the English say they are not as good as they are in dodging the shots. The English seem to get hit in the legs. Many have returned home with a beautifully articulating leg (made in America, not Germany). This place is run by wealthy Americans who provide everything, doctors and nurses included. Now we have no less than eleven Australian nurses here. The Southern Cross stands out prominently. We have a dear little chapel in the hospital and I can get to mass each morning at 7 a.m. and 6 30 on Sundays. There are thousands of employees here ; 50 in the sterlising and bandage room alone, which are run on an American system. There is a new surgeon here with his own special nurses and his own special anaesthetic. The patients have no sickness or nausea after it ; it is a new mixture. There are many wounded coming in, and we have had some deaths from tetanus. All are injected as soon as they come in with anti-tetanus serum. I have been helping in the massage department. There is much, to do there, so many have injury to

the sciatic nerve, and other nerve affections due to the wounds and fractures. It is a boon for them to have massage. There are three of us under a masseur from New York and Paris, a Swede. I have not such long hours as at the nursing, though I often relieve m the wards for the nurses to go to meals, -or stay with a patient after operation. I had a postcard from . She is busy nursing at Calais. There is a lot of typhoid there. We have to be almost m the dark at night as this hospital is so large it is a good land mark for the Germans when lighted up, so it is all m entire darkness with candles and lamps. Some Zeppelins have been about again, and m England. How the Germans hate England ! We had midnight mass here on Christmas Eve, and it was a s:"ght to remember, to see all the wounded on crutches and chairs coming to mass. We had some beautiful singing, as we have artists, singers, counts, and barons all helping to nurse the wounded. One Count gets all the bullets mounted for the soldiers. I like nursing the French; they are very grateful. There is a seminarist m one of the wards, shot through the ischium and part of the bone taken away. For weeks he had to lie on his face. Now, joy of joys, he is serving (each morning) mass. He had been made a sub-lieutenant a few days before he "was wounded, and wishes to go back to the front again. — From a nurse trained at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney.