File:A war nurse's diary - sketches from a Belgian field hospital (1918) (14782589952).jpg

Identifier: 01110260R.nlm.nih.gov
Title: A war nurse's diary : sketches from a Belgian field hospital
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: World War I Nurse, author
Subjects: World War I Nurse Nurses Field Hospitals World War I
Publisher:
Contributing Library: U.S. National Library of Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons, U.S. National Library of Medicine

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forthere was only a garret filled with desks and black-boards. Each night old M. R or one of his sons came to escort us home. We sat in a cosy sit-ting-room with the family, whilst the three sons toldus all the latest news and rumours. These ladswere in the Garde Civique, so knew all what wasgoing on during the excitement and anxiety of thefollowing weeks. How these five weeks passed isjust a vague impression of constant work, conflict-ing rumours, rush and weariness. I can remembernothing consecutively. My friend and I had a large flat containing four-teen wards, with seventy patients to attend to. Wehad no orderlies in those days; our only help wastwo shiftless charwomen, who talked Flemish only.All the patients were gravely wounded; they usuallyrequired two dressings a day and some much oft-ener. The meals alone were a perfect nightmare toget served, as scarcely any patient could feed him-self; the food consisted of stews and soups in bigbowls with coarse brown bread. To add to the
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Staff of Floor II, Antwerp. Note the Boy Scouts ANTWERP 11 labour, the great landing and two flights of circularstairs at either end were white marble. For thefirst two weeks there were only two of us to doeverything. The Belgian R. A. M. C. officers visited the wardseach morning to send on all who could travel, thenthey all had to be suitably clad, and the melee ofmuddy, disreputable uniforms sorted out and re-turned to the proper owners. Two events stand out above the daily rush. Thefirst was a visit to Malines. In that desolated townwe had a dressing-station where a small party of ourdoctors and students went daily to render first-aidby the trenches. Never shall I forget that journey. It was said that Antwerp was impregnable. Iwas told that the city had three lines of defence;the outer commenced thirty miles away in a circleof fortified towns; Termonde and Woevre St.Catherine were two of them. Then about twelvemiles away were another series of towns and vil-lages of which Malines w

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