xt7sbc3sw65x https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7sbc3sw65x/data/mets.xml The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. 1948 bulletins  English The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Frontier Nursing Service Quarterly Bulletins The Quarterly Bulletin of The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc., Vol. 24, No. 2, Autumn 1948 text The Quarterly Bulletin of The Frontier Nursing Service, Inc., Vol. 24, No. 2, Autumn 1948 1948 2014 true xt7sbc3sw65x section xt7sbc3sw65x Qllgz Qwxartzrlp {Bulletin
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TWO ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
of the
FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE,
and JEEP ~‘
(left to right)
Helen E. Browne, R.N., S.C.M.
Betty Lester, R.N., S.C.M.
Photograph Courtesy of Vera Cliadwell " 
 .
  (
THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN of FR0NT1ER NURs1No SERVICE, Inc. ·
Published Quarterly by the Frontier Nursing Service, Lexington, Ky.  
Subscription Price $1.00 Per Year 2 
VOLUME 24 AUTUMN, 1948 NUMBER 2 i
"Entered as second-class matter June 30, 1926, at the Post Ofllce at Lexington, Ky., I
under Act of March 3, 1879." {
Copyright, 1948, Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.  

 INDEX
. ARTICLE AUTHOR PAGE
‘ Beyond the Mountains 66
  V Field Notes (Illustrated) 74
‘ · "Fits" Louisa B. Chapman 14
*7:1 Horse High-Jinks Susan Spencer 37
(Drawings by Ellen Mary Hare)
In Memoriam ‘ 42
` Mandy Walked Again (Illustrated) Rose Evans 6
Y Old Courier News 24
J Old Staff News 53
s
· Reflections of a Night Nurse Margaret Field · 9
Routine Chaos? Maurice O. Barney, M. D. 3
The Changing Face of British
Voluntary Hospitals St. Bartholomewis League News 32
The Mother-Heart (Verse) Robert Emmett Ward 2
` The New Born Baby and His Frontier
Nurse-Midwife (Photograph) Inside Back Cover
Twenty Years Ago—1928
A Frontier Nursing Service Mary Breckinridge 17
BRIEF`BITS ` I
_ A Letter to Miss Dorothy F. Buck 41
A Report on "Organdie and Mull" 50
Bill Gay (Photograph) _ ` 31
Definitions The Countryman 23
Did You Know? _ The Southern Packet 16
. . Just Jokes—Children 64
_ Just Jokes—Jobs 34
` · Just Jokes——Pou1try 13
` Limericks V A Nonsense Anthology 5
Phantom Benefit ` 35
Prewar Eggs 8
;__ Problem Solved Punch 52
  Tal] Corn The Countryman 73
E Z White Elephant J 65
/

 THE MOTI*lER—I·lE/XRT · I
by · n ,
ROBERT EMMET WARD I I
  I never! louch lhe wonder ol her hair,
Her golden nimbus like a sunlil misl,
Thal curls ol olher children are nol lhere,
Unlouched. unkempl, unkissed.
I I never leel her small, conliding hand {
Slipped sollly. like a llower, wilhin my own.  
Bul olher Iillle ones beside her sland,  
Unloved. un+augh+, unknown. il
I never bend above her rosy sleep,  
Or kneel in gralilude beside her bed,  
Bul olher babes in ouler darkness weep,  
Unwalched, uncomlorled.  
O lillle daughlers whom no molher lends! I
O wee losl lambs lhal slray in slony ways!  
I·low shall we lind you?—and how make amends yay
For our child`s happy days? I I
Courtesy of COZZier’s Magazine, December 16, 1916 I
 Ei

 FRONTIER NURSING smavicg. a
ROUTINE CHAOS?
by
' MAURICE 0. BARNEY, M. D.
· it . Medical Director of the Frontier Nursing Service
5,   How often do we hear the statement "Variety is the Spice
of Life." In our own situation with the Frontier Nursing Service,
this is only partially true; it can become a slight headache as
well. Medicine with us is truly general practice, going frequently
from one end of the "books" to the other. The variety of cases
we see not only keeps our interest alive in all fields of medicine
and current therapy, but also makes it difficult to keep pace
· with the advances in each special iield. Furthermore, there is
too little "free" time to allow the desired amount of studying
; and reading of Medical Journals.
{A For example this might be part of a typical day in clinic
(other than the special clinic for mothers and babies) ; we have
  special days for clinic, but actually every day is a clinic day!
{ (1) Mr. A. J. is brought to the Hospital by his anxious
  family and friends. He is an elderly man, completely
$ disoriented in all spheres and in mild shock. This is
  the result of an attack by "tame" bees. Fortunately
  we can report that he recovered completely in a few _
§‘ hours.
3 Did you know bees can be dangerous? Death has
  resulted from as few as two "stings." Death can also
if be caused by suffocation when the small insects cover
I the nose and mouth.
_ (2) Next Betty Lou—aged 5, has "worms."
· i (3) Mrs. J. received a rat bite on her foot when she acci-
tg: dentally stepped on a rat, the rat having bitten
( through her shoe; but no "Weils disease"!
` (4) Mrs. C., a middle aged woman with asthma since child-
hood, has been having an acute attack since daybreak.
· I (5) Little Joe, aged 7, with one-third of his toe almost off
1;  (chopping kindling). This is one that didn’t come off
T;} and is still growing with little Joe.
iv  (6) Mrs. D., prenatal, with pyelitis (kidney infection).
 
 I

 4 THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN
C (7) Little Patsy, aged 3—chicken pox, no less!
(8) Uncle Ed., 74, a splinter inhis thumb.  
(9) Mr. E. C., a miner, was caught in a blast while "shoot- J
ing coal"; due to a "‘quick fuse" the "blast" blew out i _  ·
his tiny lamp, knocked him down, and of course "pep-  
pered" him with tiny pieces of coal and rock which U"
were found in and beneath the skin. This man with
his "buddy" made his way nearly to the mine entrance
on hands and knees. On reaching the Hospital he
. looked rather shocking with bleeding from 20-30 »
points and abundance of coal dust. However, when _
the wounds were cleaned there was a close resem- .
blance to a well scattered charge of buck shot, plus ,_
multiple bruises, or technically-abrasions. No blast  
injury or serious damage, but very sore for a while. I
(10) Johnny, age 4, tonsillitis with a middle ear infection. a
` (11) Mary J., age 15, pain in her right side, nausea and  
vomiting since last night——an acute appendix. Now  
to get Dr. Collins from Hazard and remove it—if we Ip
can get a call through to Hazard on the telephone. {5
(12) A. B., Jr., age 6, mumps!  
(13) Betty R., poison ivy.  
(14) Henry L., 2 months old, "colic" and a feeding problem.   ,
This continues for 30-60 patients. Then, at 2:30 in the  
morning comes a call from one of our District nurse-midwives  
on a delivery call with a face presentationf Let me add that  
these girls are the backbone of the program of bringing up-to-  
date care to the most remote cabins in our area. ?
The Service has always been deeply interested in children,  
who comprise approximately half of my work. We constantly  
strive to improve the-maternal care. The obstetrical side would * A. ‘
appear slighted if I did not mention that only a few emergencies g
are seen on the "regular" clinic days which I have described.
This is because we have a special day each week for mothers g
and babies. ~
The situation under which the Service is operating is chang-  
ing rapidly and can not be completely overlooked. For instance,  
the population is increasing; coal mines are operatingf on an  

 Fnowrmn NURSING smnvicm s
increasingly larger scale [with trucks to carry the coal to dis-
,_ stant railroads] ; the standard of living is rising; and more roads
‘  are being constructed. More and more the people realize the
 l, . need for medical care, and now can travel to get it or make their
’ needs known better than ever before.
{5/ With these changes in mind, all can see clearly that more
space for our Hospital is needed as well as another doctor. The
program could then be enlarged to include even more district
work, more home visits, and above all else well baby clinics at
all our centers, which would prevent a lot of our present illness
in this youngest age group and improve the general area health.
a
5
*   ` LIMERIGKS
k
l
{ { There was an old man who said, "Do
  Tell me how I’m to add two and two?
  I’m not very sure
  I That it doesn’t make four—— ’
i But I fear that is almost too few."
    ....
  There once was a man who said, "How
  Shall I manage to carry my cow?
  For if I should ask it
  To get in my basket,
s _ . ’T would make such a terrible row."
i A —Anonymous
From A Nonsense Anthology
Collected by Carolyn Wells, 1903
{li ‘
il .
,|`

 I
6 THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN Q
MANDY WALKED AGAIN  
by
· ROSE EVANS (Cherry), R.N., S.c.M. _ G
Senior Nurse-Midwife at the {  
Frances Bolton Nursing Center, ~, 0
Confluence, Kentucky
Accidents will happen——as in this case in the mountains last .
wi.nter——in the worst weather possible. Snow sixteen inches deep,
over a thick layer of ice. Temperature below zero. The time,
5 :00 p.m.
I had just come in from a ten-mile walk (weather conditions _
and river permitted no riding) and was thawing out before a
good hre, when I heard the clang of the gate, and voices which `
meant just one thing, "You’re wanted." ,
Two very scared and frozen boys rode up to the door and   `
both started talking to me at the same time. After listening to    
iirst one and then the other, I gathered that their grandmother,    
known to me as Mandy and aged 70, had fallen in the yard and Q
broken her leg. They had brought their horse for me—"Would ·
you ride hit ‘?" I thought, no river to cross, but one of the worst  
mountains in the district facing me! However, as these boys A  
had come that way, I could go back with them. So I left it  
at that. ks
The next few minutes were spent in getting together what  
I thought I would nueed. Finally, saddlebags and self ready, I  
went out and made the .
·’·   ,' 7,- acquaintance of the
\)   horse. Loland behold, no
I     `   f Saddle! No   .
      ` ly, ‘     ·,   chance of adjusting one _ 1
\) ‘ {Yi ?° A     of ours without wasting · -
ffcib .      & a lot of time. So, I ·
  V ca Aa} - ._ Q§ quickly dumped the con-
/;g’    zi? 4-»—..,., " tents of my Saddlebags —
% ¢ @/ ’ .%’ '€’ into a pillow case. To  
The Start keep on gléat horslei withé  
ou a sa e wou nee —‘
all my powers of concentration without slippery bags under me.  
— A
Jé

 I
5 1moN·1·1ER Nunsmo smnvicm 7
V I made the smaller of the two boys get up in front of me. The
Q other one went ahead with a lantern and my pillow case of
r emergency supplies. We started. The second boy had what it
_ takes. To this day I marvel at his lung capacity. He went up
Af that mountain like a blue streak, dragging the horse, with me
u » as a grim and uncomfortable rider behind him. My companion
fairly hung on to the horse’s _ /7.
mane while I clasped him ' _,_.g·     ;'(·* ,..
firmly around the middle. Up        
and up we went——up a wind- / .\       »"x{j_g;;f ,
ing path—through snow drifts , ? / { H 'I  ’/
—on ice—under trees——over { \ 2- E  5+   Z
. fallen logs—the boy clutching _   5   ’
_ the mane, I clutching the boy.   x P g.  Z
We reached the top, a panting [ / }-2'°`  ;/
» _ foursome—our breath like x / —
  steam in the lantern light, our ’ _
  bodies one big ache. Tha Climb
l { ‘ Now down the other side we went, walking, because it was
  impossible for man or beast to keep their feet on the steep down-
r  grade. We all four slid. We made the cabin at 1ast—arriving
  very sore and very cold. Mandy’s groans spurred me to activity,
  ~ and one look at her leg told me it was fractured. Neighbors had V
ll come in from round about, so I had many helpers. With their
  aid I got all I wanted in the way of material for splints in no
  time. Meanwhile I had given
? I Mandy a sedative and filled her
‘   corncob pipe. Then I padded the
  3 splints and prepared to set her
,   leg.
l { sw ;¥;:QL|2; One of the neighbors who
I _ _ p ‘ "*   had come in to help was a "cow
I   doctor," so I asked for his serv-
__ __ _ __;_...,__;.. ices, and he proved most helpful.
_   Between us we got the bones
  Setting the Leg into position and the splints in
  a place. Time would tell whether
  our efforts were successful. Under normal weather conditions
  Mandy would have been taken out for an X-ray and medical
—l
 

 8 THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN
· care, but there was no chance of this just then——or for the many .
weeks that followed. _
Once we had Mandy’s leg in position, and splinted, all her
pain ceased. I left the old lady with the hope that by the time
Spring came, she could walk again— I
And she did.  
. · ' U
,4%*; 5¢ . ?··
4% m {
{AL ... $ ·—~ -._  
Spring  
——-———— U
PREWAR EGGS
A young matron of our acquaintance has lately had a baby. p _
She lives in a community where a leading pediatrician, very W
modern, takes on the babies as soon as they are bornein order Q I
to make sure that the hospitals don’t stop the breast feeding,
upon which he so rightly insists. This pediatrician was called '»
when the young matron went into the delivery room, and was E ,
sitting by her when she came to. He told her that she had a  
daughter, and he swears this is what she said in reply: "I did  
not want that. I want two dozen prewar eggs."  

 Fnourmn Nunsmo SERVICE 9
A REFLECTIONS OF A NIGHT NURSE , .
by n V
MARGARET FIELD, R.N., M.N.
Q "Anything can happen here-—and probably will" should be
  the slogan of Hyden Hospital. To no situation is this slogan
more applicable than the night, for everything happens at night
and even more or less ordinary events are invested with a cer-
` tain eerie quality by the blackness and stillness of the wee
small hours. As I have found myself on night duty time after
time I have remembered, frequently and with a wry smile, the
e significant words of the Bible: "Men loved darkness rather than
y light, because their deeds were evil." If one’s apparent fondness ‘
{ for the dark is the measure of one’s evil deeds, I must be
’ extremely wicked, to put it mildly!
  Night is the time when little children in the hospital cry
  for home and mother, when every ache and pain of adults
A becomes not only more painful but more terrifying. Night is
,p the time when many babies are born, or at least when they
  announce their intentions of appearing. Many a time there has
  been a close race between the stork and the midwives here. The
Q] night nurse’s responsibility in such a case is to telephone the
  midwives’ quarters (and hope she can be heard) and wait for _
lp some one to come and "catch" the baby. If the midwife beats
F the stork, the night nurse can draw another deep breath and
y go about her business. .
s Hyden Hospital knows both extremes, the nights when it
is so quiet that the rustle of her own clean uniform startles the
nurse as she swishes down the hall, and the opposite kind, so
noisy and busy that no power on earth can enable the nurse to
q . accomplish all the necessary tasks in the allotted time.
W Besides patients, we occasionally have relatives who spend
Q I the night. We sometimes ask relatives to stay or at least accede
to their request to be allowed to stay, not so much to help care
g for the patient or because the patient is critically ill, but because
T, it is impossible to get in touch with families easily and quickly
  should there be any change in the patient’s condition. Therefore
  ‘ we often have someone staying with a patient the iirst night or
  two after operation, or a mother staying with a very sick child.
l

 I
10 THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN \
All relatives who "take the night" are divided into two classes:
those who ask for a blanket so they can curl up and go to sleep, L.
and those who ask for coffee so they can stay awake. We try
to be amenable to both suggestions! Unless the patient is very t
noisy and restless or is at death’s door, the relative usually tries {T
to rest. We are glad to donate extra beds for this purpose `
when we have them. Sometimes embarrassing things happen, as
on the morning when I had to rout a visiting mother out of bed
because there was a new patient to be admitted at four o’clock. .
Relatives who stay over night are usually very helpful, not
only with their own folks but with other patients as well. One i
night I went downstairs and called a man who was sitting in the  
waiting room till his shift with a seriously ill relative began.  
He was asleep but I woke him and asked him to come and help  
me move a large woman who had just died. Not very conven- Y
tional, of course, but I was all alone and had to have help in ;
turning the woman. At Hyden Hospital we soon learn to be  
absolutely open-minded and to believe that whatever works is {
good. The strange part, to me, is that no visitor ever seems  
surprised at what happens here or what he is asked to do. [  
If there were only the patients in the hospital wards—yes,  
and their relatives—to look after, life would be simple indeed.  
There would be hectic moments, of course, with everybody want-  
ing something at the same time, but in general things would be  
under control. {  
But the first floor is another story! Generally it is when  
the nurse is busiest upstairs that the doorbell peals through the   {
echoing silences of the night. As soon as possible she puts down I I
the baby she is carrying, winds up the treatment she is giving, il
or pulls a thermometer from somebody’s mouth, and then runs  
downstairs, mentally prepared for anything. She courageously ;  
throws open the front door and peers out into the darkness,  
wondering what will greet her. At the door the nurse often   .
finds a young man, nervously fingering his cap. He says, apolo-
* getically and bashfully, "Annie is sick." The nurse of some ,
F'.N.S. experience knows immediately what is behind that simple  
statement. A girl is in labor and her husband has come for the W
midwives. A hurried telephone call to the midwives’ quarters, ;i
the tramping of heavy boots across the waiting room floor as  
I
i l

 I
{ FRoN·1·1mR NURSING snnvicm 11
the nurses pick up their saddlebags, and they are off to another
{ delivery. Sometimes it is the impatient pawing of horses’ hoofs
that shatters the stillness of the frosty night, and sometimes
_ it is the spluttering of Janie, the jeep, as the nurses drive off.
wg In any case it’s exciting, this race to welcome another new life.
l ’ Sometimes the person at the front door at night is one who
has had a bad accident and needs immediate suturing or an
x-ray. In the case of accident or illness the medical director
- must be called. The night nurse helps him in his examination
and treatment and then either dismisses the patient or takes
g him upstairs to be admitted. Many people appearing at our
  door in the middle of the night expect to find the doctor waiting
  there for them. They look incredulous when told that he must
  get up, get dressed, and come up the hill, all of which takes a
I few minutes. Such people look beyond the nurse, over toward
»\ the doctor’s desk, as if half expecting him to be hiding behind it.
{ When one woman came in at 12:30 a.m., I asked how long she
{ had had the pain of which she complained. "Oh, I had it all day
  yesterday," she replied. "I came up here to see my sister in
{ the hospital and wanted to see the doctor, but it was clinic day
  and he was too busy. I thought I’d get to see him now without
{5 Wa11;mg.*·
  Once again, if there were only the human element, both _
  upstairs and down, to be considered, the life of the night nurse
  would be fairly uncomplicated. But there are still the nether
if regions. To a middle class girl growing up in town or city, a
  furnace is a big black thing in the cellar with which her father
*1 has occasional dealings. To the night nurse at Hyden Hospital,
i { however, the furnace becomes a very real entity to be reckoned
Pl with, not only figuratively but literally, for on her depends the
, , temperature of the whole hospital and nurses’ quarters during
  the long winter nights (and winter, as gauged by the use of
  the furnace, lasts at least seven months, even in Kentucky). The
' l furnace at times seems to take on almost human characteristics
I as it teases, sulks, and threatens. There is a real art to keeping
'. a good furnace fire but, even when one has mastered all the
  rules and followed them meticulously, results are not uniform
Q , and predictable. More than once,.after coaxing and tending a
  nearly dead iire, I have been embarrassed to have the radiator
I
` i

 12 THE QUARTERLY Bunnnwin
pipes all over the house suddenly begin to thump at 2 a.m. and L
to hear various members of the staff get up to throw off more I
bedding and throw open more windows.
Besides the patients and the furnace, there is the animal I
world, not always asleep at night. An occasional bat gets in and Y
of course startles the patients. Once I found a bat swooping ‘
over some of the babies, asleep in the operating room. I felt
just as timid as anyone but, for the sake of the mothers, I had
to assume a courage I was far from feeling. I got the bat in a
sheet and walked to the back porch to release it. Nothing hap- .
pened—till I went back to the ward again, where I had inadvert— g
ently dropped the bat on the way out. I went through the same  
process again and this` time finally ended the bat with a broom.  
In the summer the cows are left out. Our cows, unusually  
smart ones, are sometimes able to open the gate that leads from l
the pasture onto the road. The tinkle of a cow bell under the R;
hospital windows is an ominous sound, for it means that a cow ”  
is headed toward the bright lights of Hyden. The night nurse i
must run after her and coax or force her back. Once it was a [
less slow and cumbersome a creature than a cow that I heard  
outside the hospital. I ran downstairs, just in time to see a  
mule disappearing beyond the little stone house. "Our Tenacity,    
of course," I muttered with a sigh, and prepared to give pursuit.   ,
The mule let me get quite close and then always shied away. ',
The chase went on till we were several rods from the hospital  
and I had to admit myself beaten. Sorrowfully I reported to I {
the superintendent that Tenacity was gone. "Oh,’l she said,  
turning over sleepily, "that’s not our mule at all, just a neighbor - A
one that likes to come visiting." 1
When a stray cat wanders into the hospital and gets into
a fight with our cat, then the fun begins. The sound is weird 5
and unearthly, even more so than most sounds are at night.  
Whisking around the wards, comforting crying babies, giv-
ing an extra blanket to a patient, carrying healing penicillin
shots, visiting the furnace, taking care of the clinic emergencies ,
—that is the way the night goes. Till about four o’clock, that is, I ,
the blissful hour when it is almost time to wake the patients fi
for temperatures, baths, babies and breakfast. The world, and ji;
especially Hyden Hospital, seems a different place when the  
1
*l

 FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE is
I patients wake up and the maids begin to stir upstairs. The time
., after 4 a.m. scarcely seems like work at all because it is so
wonderful to have company and to know that daylight is on
_. the way. The trees and hills begin to take shape and the road
‘ appears beneath the hospital windows. As for the sunrise, no
*` words can describe the breath-taking beauty of that sight, as -
brilliant crimson streaks pierce the darkness of the east. Prob-
ably no one can really appreciate a sunrise except a person who
has kept vigil all through the night.
_ My night life'? I really like it, not because I have a predilec-
  tion for a path illumined only by the feeble glow of a flashlight,
i but because Hyden nights are replete with adventure, interest,
; variety and opportunity.
i
  _..__;....._
1
a
tl
 E .
    JUST JOKES—POULTRY
i ¤
  A City visitor: "Which is correct: ‘a hen is sitting} or ‘a hen is
[ . setting' ?" _
I . Farmer: "I don’t know and I don’t care. All I bother about is when
5 she cackles, is she laying or is she lying?"
i i
it '
gi ....
§ t
The elderly treasurer of a local ladies’ aid society was in the bank to
` deposit the organization’s funds. She handed the money over to a hard-
of-hearing teller with the casual remark that it was the "aid money."
"_ The teller thought she said "egg money" and he promptly wanted to
\ compliment her on the organization’s endeavor.
` "Remarkable," he said, "isn’t it, how well the old hens are doing
these days."
y _ The lady left with a frown.
ii I
2*}
I
 

 14 THE QUARTERLY BULLETIN - — l
· “FITS" · E3
by  
LOUISA B. CHAPMAN, B.A., R.N.‘
(Certified Midwife) ‘·
Jessie Preston Draper Memorial  
· Nursing Center at Beech Fork  
"Chappy, Sally is having fits!"
Thus Ruth abruptly awakened me one chilly morning before
daylight. With a leap I was out of bed and throwing on my
clothes. This was no time for a gradual awakening. It meant _
instant action and quick thinking, for every _second lost would
give Sally less chance for recovery. No need for asking, ’
"Ruth, will you go with me‘?" for she was already half T
dressed. ° 3
Sally was seventeen, and pregnant with her first child. Our {  
instructions on rest and diet had seemed like nonsense to her, , V
for, as she reasoned, other women had babies without staying _
in bed before their time came, and so might she. Now, one of  
obstetrics’ most serious and dreaded complications, eclampsia, ll
was occurring.   i
In record time we were ready and running for the jeep, so Q i
thankful that Sally was living on the highway and not an hour    
or two horseback trip away from us. We blessed Jennie, the  
jeep, for a quick start and took slight heed of holes and bumps { l
in the road on the way. We parked by the river and waded  
across to the house on the other side. The river was low at the ig
ford, but one of my boots slipped into a hole and came up soaked. [ l
It was nearly an hour before I thought of it again. Y
Sa1ly’s condition was as critical as we had anticipated; As
we hurried up the steps, she was seized with another violent  
I convulsion. While Ruth stayed with her, to keep her from `}
injury, I fixed and gave the injections which our Routine re- i
quired. In an emergency such as this your first thought is always
of one thing——the Medical Routine book. In it you will find an *
outline of an approved treatment which you may follow, accord- 2;
ing to what the situation demands. It has laughingly been called ·
our "Bible." To us that morning it was nothing less.  
The room was cleared of curious children and darkened; the _ d
i é
‘ I

 i F1=¤oN·1·1ER ytmsine smnvxcn 15
l
  foot of Sally’s bed was elevated in shock position, and medical
El treatment instituted, all in a very few minutes. It was difficult
V to keep our voices steady and not show the concern which we
  felt before the frightened family.
y Ten minutes later another severe convulsion seized Sally.
` We had composed a hurried letter to Dr. Barney and sent the
T father-in-law on his way to Hyden with it, but it would take at
least an hour and a half for him to return with Dr. Barney or
a message. We had hadlno telephone connections with Hyden
since the flood in June, and the only way to get word to the
doctor was to make the fourteen-mile trip there and back. Mean-
- while, we watched and waited, and offered a good many silent
, `prayers that help would come in time.
; Twenty minutes later Sally was writhing in another convul-
s I sion, much milder than the others. This was encouraging for it
{¤ meant that our injections were taking effect. Soon after that
{ Sally’s breathing indicated that she was sleeping and no longer
l` ‘ in a coma.
,   Almost two hours elapsed before the father-in-law returned.
li Meanwhile we were fed a delicious breakfast of hot biscuits,
M gravy, fried apples, peaches and coffee. We had many misgiv-
t i ings when we saw our messenger crossing the river with a letter
  “ in his hand. We met him at the top of the steps to learn that _
  the doctor was away. We tore open the letter and our hands
lj trembled as we read a note from Eva. Dr. Barney was at Con-
  iiuence, called there to see a critically ill patient, but they were
gg sending someone for him immediately. We were to bring the
l y patient in to Hyden Hospital as quickly as possible.
i By this time the man and truck which had taken our mes- ,
senger to Hyden had gone on to work. So the father-in-law
  started out to find another truck which could be used to move
i} Sally. We prepared her for the trip. We found a pair of bed
springs which would fit on the truck bed and a mattress on
i which she could lie. An hour passed, and then another, before
. our messenger returned. The sedatives were wearing off, and
Q. Sally was getting restless again. We gave her more sedation.
l'. Then, with as little confusion and noise as possible, six men
fi carried her, mattress and all, to the springs on the truck bed.
at Our trip to Hyden began. Ruth was on one side of Sally,
. S ·
I

 i
l
is mm QUARTERLY BULLETIN I
I and I was on the other. She was aware of the trip, and kept _ 1
asking about its progress. To us it seemed endless. When we  
had gone about half the way, Ruth and I suddenly became con-
scious of a horn tooting behind us. We looked up just in time _
to see Dr. Barney passing us in his jeep. He had gotten back I
to Hyden and started out to see what had delayed us, but turned I
around when he met us with the patient.
We arrived at the Hospital, and thankfully turned the case
over to Dr. Barney. The story had a happy ending. Sally had
no more convulsions. The next day she gave birth to a beautiful
baby girl. She gradually improved, and in two weeks was able .
to return home to be cared for on the district.
Ruth and I agreed that it had been a good experience for I
us, but not one that we wanted again in a long, long time.  
l%
il
DID YOU KNOW?   `
= I
Nearly a fourth of the population of the South last year  
were single persons, and there were a million more unmarried  
men than women, the Bureau of the Census reports.  
A g
More than a fourth of the women of the South were work-  
` ing last year, according to a Bureau of the Census report just l
issued.
—The Southern Packet [·
4 November I948  
» What in heaven’s name has happened to the 1,000,000 ,
bachelors! _ I
 
1

 1
1
{ .
I Faowrmn NURSING smnviczz 17
- g Twenty Years Ago - 1928
I A FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
. by
I MARY BRECKINRIDGE, R.N.
V (Certified Midwife) ,
Director, Frontier Nursing Service,
· Wendover, Ky.
Abridged reprint from The American Journal
of Obstetrics and Gynecology
June 1928
= A movement is of just as much value as the goal it sets
itself and the success with which its activities tend to reach
y that goal. The purpose of the Frontier Nursing Service is to
  reduce the maternal and infant death rate in remote areas by
  ‘ providing resident nurse-midwives, trained and licensed as nurses
  and as midwives by civilization’s centers for work in its out-
  posts, in cooperation with the nearest available medical supply.
ii Why is such a plan desirable? How is it made practical?
  _ We must start off with a bit of history. Our association
  i under its original name of Kentucky Committee for Mothers and _
gl Babies, Inc., began its work in the Kentucky mountains; first,
  because those of us who conceived the project and were willing
§ to give time and money to launch it were Kentuckians, and sec-
¤ · . . . ·
ii ond, because few mountains ar