BRAVE NURSE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1938, Page 10

BRAVE NURSE

GAVE LIFE FOR PATIENTS CLOTHING CATCHES FIRE “She lost her life because she had the children in mind. For a girl of 20, she showed wonderful consideration.” That tribute was paid by the Liverpool coroner, Mr Mr G. C. Mort, at an inquest on Gwendoline Mary Jones, 20-year-old probationer nurse at the Liverpool City Hospital, Fazakerley, and daughter of Mr Hugh Jones, of Tanlon, Tycroes, Anglesey, after he had heard of the girl’s thought for the patients under her care when her clothing caught fire at the hospital. Dr Elsie A. Burns, the hospital’s senior medical officer, stated that she was called at 4.50 a.m. to Nurse Jones, who had been on night duty in a ward where there were 12 convalescent children. She found her suffering from severe burns, practically all her clothing having been burnt away. She was in a state of collapse.' Nurse Jones told her that her apron caught fire while she was stretching over the fireguard to pick up a live coal that had fallen into the hearth, the smoke from which she feared might trouble the sleeping children. To reach the telephone and fire alarm, she would have had to run to the other end of the ward, about 12 yards, but she said she was afraid of frightening and imperilling the lives of the 12 little patients in her ward. Accordingly, she ran out of a door .near the fireplace which led to a lonely part of the hospital grounds, where she could not be seen. Her screams attracted the attention of- a man passing by the foundary fence, and he came to the hospital gate and informed the night maid. Nurse Jones died eight hours later from shock following extensive burns. Dr Burns added that one of the first questions Miss Jones asked when she regained consciousness, was: “Are the children safe?” Dr Hodgson, medical superintendent at the hospital, told the coroner: “This young nurse gave her life for the sake of the children.” A verdict of “Accidental death” was recorded.