Capsized! by Sutton Patricia;

Author:Sutton, Patricia;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2018-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

RESCUE AND RECOVERY

Gone. Gone. Gone.

—Dr. Thomas A. Carter, Chicago Health Department

Nurse Helen Repa caught her breath, then pushed her way through the crowds and climbed up the slippery side of the Eastland. She lost her footing and began to fall backward, but someone caught her and boosted her up from behind. When she reached the top, she froze and watched rescuers assist passengers who were hanging on to benches, moldings, railings, or anything else secured to the hull or floor of the ship.

Firemen dragged out survivors whose fancy dresses were no longer white but dirt brown, soaked, and torn. Rescuers observed people with bloodied faces and arms, scratched by frantic fingers trying to grasp at them to keep from sinking below the surface. Many suffered severe cuts and bruises caused by falling debris. Soon Helen snapped out of her initial shock and likely checked in with one of the doctors to find out where to begin. Rescuers laid the injured on the side of the ship or raced them to the nearby docks for treatment. A steady stream of stretchers connected ship to shore.

She followed the procession to the wharf. One doctor examined the body on each stretcher that passed by, working feverishly to find any sign of life. Running his fingers along the side of each person’s neck, he searched for a pulse. If he found one, he directed that survivor be given immediate care. If he did not feel anything, he simply uttered the word “Gone.”

Helen heard that word again and again.

“Gone.”

“Gone.”

“Gone.”

Doctors and nurses worked on the sidewalks surrounding the disaster. Under canvas street awnings, partially protected from the rain, coatless physicians tried to resuscitate victims who were being brought more rapidly than they could be cared for. Doctors called for more hot water, more blankets, more bandages. Confusion spread in those early hours, as rescuers and responders tried desperately to establish some order. There was no carefully thought-out plan, but an “unconscious harmony among those who sprang to the immediate and obvious task of rescue and first aid” developed.

Helen knelt in puddles, working over those who labored to breathe. “Where are the pulmotors?” she wondered aloud. The breathing machines hadn’t arrived, and they provided the only chance for many of those clinging to life. She did her best to administer first aid until the machines came, bandaging wounds, tying off arteries, wrapping survivors in blankets. Doctors assured her that a call had gone out across the city for every available pulmotor to be rushed to the scene of the accident. Survivors who needed more serious attention waited for ambulances to transport them to a hospital.

The other first responders were the priests. Because so many on board the Eastland were Catholic, several priests from nearby parishes came to bless the wounded and dead. One priest stood on the side of the steamship beneath an umbrella, a shawl covering his shoulders.

“Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis, in nomine Patris, et Filli, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.” (I absolve you from all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

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