OUR HOSPITALS IN EGYPT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2777, 23 May 1916, Page 7

OUR HOSPITALS IN EGYPT

SPLENDIDLY ORGANISED

SOMETHING ABOUT THE WORK

(From the New Zealand Official Wat Correspondent, Mr. Malcolm Koss.J Cairo, Alarch 29. New Zealand was fortuuate in getting a building designed and already equipped as a hospital., it is two-storied, w itii. shady balconies and spacious grounds, in which a're tents lor the overllow. In otner Hospitals, Hurriedly improvised, both- doctors and nurses had to work under less advantageous circumstances. Hut here, again, the deficiencies were remedied as qiuciiiy as possible. The slutt' and Uio control of the hospital varied irom time to time, till iinaiiy it worked up to a personnel for a hospital with o2u beds, liut what with beds on the balconies and tents in the grounds there weie at times accommodated between £00 ami IGtlO patients. The staff tor a. 500-bed hospital consists of a lieutenant-colonel in chafge, two lieutenant-colonels, five majors, twelve captains, a quartermaster, and sergeants, corporals, and men for ward and general duties. The nursing staif consists of a matron, 16 sisters, and 2B staff nurses —13 in all. The staff was seldom up to . this strength, yet it carried on the work practically of a lOOtl-bed hospital at times. 'The medical and surgical staff was a highly competent one, while too much praise could scarcely be bestowed upon the self-sacrificing energy and devotion of the highly-trained New Zealand nurses. An ophthalmic surgeon belonging to the K.A.M.C. visited the hospital once a week for consultations. There were about 120 orderlies in the establishment, and, in addition to these, over sixty native servants vero employed in menial work iii and about the hospital. Attached to the hospital is a post-office, which is a great convenience. In the tent which accommodates it as many as 16,000 letters are dealt with in a week. Between HO and 30 sacks of newspapers arrive par week—that is, when the ships can bring them. Three officers censor the letters. There are six men employed in tho post office, one man being continuously employed in redirecting letters to ten other hospitals and convalescent camps. During last year the admissions to thft hospital numbered 8506—115 officers and G391 other ranks. These were not all New Zealanders, a certain number of English and Australian, officers and men having' in that time passed through the hospital. By far the larger number of cases were cases of sickness, tho number reaching the high figure of 5325 sick a 9 compared with 1181 wounded. A laTgo number of New Zealand wounded, especially in. the earlier stages of the. fighting, received treatment in the numerous other hospitals in. Alexandria and Cairo, and most of the serious cases returning from the battlefield were not taken past Alexandria. The deaths in tho hospital had been' remarkably few. No officer had died of wounds, and only one from sick-, ness. There had been <!2 deaths of me" from sickness and only 10 from wounds, Tho greater number of deaths from wounds had, of course, occurred on the battlefield, in the dressing and clearing stations, and on the hospital ships. There had been over 200 operations "lor gunshot wounds and' complications, 35 for hernia, 30 for appendicitis, 42 for varicose veins of varied nature, and 27 for haemorrhoids. There had been 120 minor operations in addition to a large numbei of abdominal operations. ; Hurts and Ailments. One of the most interesting corners of a modern military hospital is that in which the X-ray expert does his work. Tho New Zealand Hospital is quite up to date in this respect. Bullets and bits of shell and bombs and shrapnel are located with wonderful and uncanny accuracy. By this means not only iB the patient saved a'great deal of exploratory cutting, that would in many cases bo. necessary in the olden times, but he is even, in some cases, 'saved the necessity for Qperation- altogether. . The deeper in the bullet is the harder it is to locate, and the outer wound is often no.index as to the exact locality in whioh, the bullet may be lying, for bullets are frequently deflected in' strange ways. The pointed bullet coming at a high velocity generally goes right through, and makes a clean wound, but sometimes it turns Tound after .'impact and tears the tissue and breaks tho bone, leaving an ugly wound. There are 200 beds in the hospital' reserved for suTgical cases requiring special attention. Minor cases are accommodated in tents. At tho time of my visit there were some £00 patients in the hospital, and seTen in a convalescent annexe at Heliopolis. Some of the New Zealand convalescents were also sent to LuSor and.Heloan, and Lady Godley's Home took in others. At Port Said there was a. camp for convalescent enteric patients, where they waited till they could be sent back to New Zealand, and at Suez a rest camp, where other New Zea-land-bound patients could be sent. So far as very bad surgical cases are concerned, they are, of course, dealt with much nearer, the firing line than Cairosome on the hospital sinips, while many of the more serious cases, both' of disease and wounds, were conveyed to other hospitals at .Alexandria. '■

Most of the ca«s are gunshot wounds, but quite a number are the result of accidents. Operations were also necessary as the result of septic 6ores and wounds, surface infections, • and abscesses. Some h«aled quickly; others wero delayed in their healing through, blood poisoning associated with the life we led on Gallipoli. Debility, flies, and dirt played their parts. There were a large number of operations for appendicitis, hernia, varicose veins, and haemorrhoids. In the winter, cases of trench foot and a few cases of real frostbite turned up. There were, however, no amputations from these causes in the New Zeala'nd hospital. Trench foot is usually caused by interference with the circulation duo to swelling of the limbs n3 the result of stauding for lengthy periods in cold and wet without removing the boots. As a Tule, the cases stopped short of gangrone..

During the liot weather, operations were carried on at a disadvantage, but by starting at 6 a.m., before the heat becamo in* tetise, and by scrupulous attention to aseptic technique, the results attained were very satisfactory. Indeed, the recoveries and the rapidity of healing com pared favourably with the results attained in civil hospitals under the best conditions. There was a very low death, rate from enteric in its varied forms of typhoid and para-typhoid alpha and beta. At one stago there was an epidemic, of jaundice. Case's of pneumonia, enteritis, and rheumatism came into the hospital, but there were no cases of cliolera or typhus. Malaria and liiikl fevers of an obscure character—dengue, influenza, neurasthenia, and debility claimed attention. Neurasthenia was generally attributable to shock fiom high explosives and debility. .