“HORRID MRS. CASE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 1

“HORRID MRS. CASE”

Hospital Patient Whom Nurses Dislike A HEARTLESS WOMAN Have you met Mrs. Case? It is probable you have not, for alas! poor soul, she has lain bedridden these several years. She has never known what it is to walk.

From the matron to the newest probationer in the Auckland Hospital there is not a nurse who has not paused at Mrs. Case’s bedside. She endures the weary monotony with fortitude. Her resigned composure is worthy of a saint. No word of complaint has passed her lips. In point of fact she is a model patient. But, strangely enough, the nursing staff dislikes Mrs. Case with an intensity of feeling which, to say the least, is most unusual in practitioners of so gentle a profession. They call her “that beastly old woman,” and heap their scorn upon her. It is obviously a case for investigation. Here is a little secret. Mrs. Case is not that sweet old lady one might imagine from the description of her fortitude. Hers is indeed a strange case. Denied by her maker either heart or soul, Mrs. Case is inhuman. She would gladly stand by and see murder committed!

As a matter of fact, Mrs. Case is made of “a sort of shiny leathery stuff.” The good lady is for “practising on.” A new recruit has not taken up her duties more than a few days before she is formally introduced to Mrs. Case —so-called, of course, because she is a hospital case. There is baby Case as well. “We have to feed the little wretch out of a bottle, and bath it and splash it about in a tub and pinch its cheek —you have to do that with babies,” Miss Eighteen confided to a Sun man. Every morning the probationers crowd round Mrs. Case’s cot. Her painted pate shines on the pillow and all the time her eyes are counting the boards on the ceiling. The Sister-in-Charge puts the girls through a catechism, and Mrs. Case is interviewed:—

Sister-in-Charge: You will begin, Nurse Lint.

The probationer (glancing venomously at patient, then smiling brilliantly) : Good morning, Mrs. Case (a giggle); ha%-e you had a comfortable night? Oh, yes, was’nt it? Real Auckland weather, so clammy! (A dreadful pause. The ringside also giggles). Sister-in-Charge: Sponge Mrs. Case.

The Probationer: Now come on, Mrs. Case! (business with sponge.) I’ve brought a clean nightie, Mrs. Case. You can pop it on while 1 throw this water out. Now where’s that thermometer? Only 98 and a bit. Why. you’re not ill at all, you old sham!

Sister-in-Charge: That’s quite enough, Nurse Lint. Now you, Nurse Gauze.

, And Nurse Gauze takes over the care of Mrs. Case, who gazes stolidly ceiling-wards as she is once again bathed and bandaged. A churlish patient? Y’es, but who wouldn’t object to being bathed, bandaged and dressed 15 times in one morning?