HOW A CHOLERA PATIENT FEELS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1803, 2 October 1884, Page 2

HOW A CHOLERA PATIENT FEELS.

The patient feels well up to within a few hours of the attack, or it may be, goes to bed and sleeps soundly through the night, and immediately on rising in the morning is seized with violent purging and vomiting. If judiciously treated many patients recover from this, the lirst stage of cholera, but if neglected, the tendency ot the disease is to grow rapidly worse. The patiei: t complains of intense 'hirst and a burning heat at the pit of his stomach; he suffers also excruciating pain from cramps in the muscles of thw extremities ; he is terribly rustless, and his urgent cry is for water to quench his thirst, and that some one will rub his limbs, and tlius relieve tli s muscular spasm. The pulse is rapid and very weak, the respirations are very liuiried and the patient's voice becomes husky. His countenance is pinchtd, and the iuteguiuent of his body feels inelastic and doughy, while the skin of his hands and feet becomes wrinkled and purplish in color, The dura'ion of this, the second stage of cholera, is very uncertain—it may last for two or three hours only, or may continue for twelve or fifteen hours; but so lon;,' an the pulse can be felt at the wrist there are still good hopes of the sick person's recovery. The weaker the puiso becomes, the nearer the. patient is to the third, or collapse, stngo ot cholera, from which probably not more than thirty-five per cent recover. In the third stage of the disease the vomiting and purging continue, although in a mitigated form ; and the skin is covered with a clammy perspiration, especially if the cramps are still severe. The patient remains terribly restless, longing only for sleep, and that he nny be supplied with water, His intellect is clear; but lie seldome expresses any anxiety regarding worldy affairs, although fully conscious of the dangerous condition he is in. Sleep and a plentiful supply of drinking water are the sole desires of a person passing through a collapse stage of cholera. This condition seldome lasts more than twenty-four hours, and ractiou either commences in that period or the patient dies in cdftapse, or'passes on into the ,n pid 'tagc, wliich in nmMv-nine cases out of a htuulml .ii* n, d«ath. Oil the, othof-,,hand,,:the.sick person hiving been in the collapse stage of cholera some twenty-four hours (it may be a lunger or shorter period), the temperature of his body may begin to rise, gradually creeping up to the normal standard; the fnnetinns of animal life rt. ,■ 'lO V ■ : ">! ' I :M I th« si'..'!t p,';i' Hi | .i !}., jjMivl 1),