Yes Sister, No Sister by Jennifer Craig

Author:Jennifer Craig
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409005674
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

Chapter 16

BACK ON DAYS again and I find that I am not down for any theatre. I look for Daisy. Has she forgotten that I am on? I find her in the instrument room and ask her what she would like me to do.

‘Ah yes, Nurse Ross. I want you to help Bob today as several anaesthetic machines need a good clean. He’s in the store room.’

Bob is a theatre technician who sees to the lights, adjusts the operating tables for each surgery and services the anaesthetic machines. The storeroom is a large room lined with shelves that house everything that no one knows where else to put. Bob is muttering over three Boyle anaesthetic machines that are heaped with instruments and cloths.

‘Bugger PA,’ he says. ‘It’s all very well trying out heart operations on weekends but does he have to make such a bloody mess?’

‘Never mind, Bob,’ I say. ‘I’ve been sent to help you.’

‘I told Daisy I’d never have these machines ready for use today if I didn’t get any help. Now one of the autoclaves is playing silly devils and I have to go to the basement for some more tanks.’

‘Well, I’ll clean these machines for a start. How on earth did they get like this?’ I look closer at the blood and dog hair clinging to most parts of the machine.

‘It’s Philip Allison – he’s trying to work out how to stop the heart long enough to operate on it and keep the blood flowing. So he experiments on dogs. Though how he makes this mess, I don’t know.’

Philip Allison is a thoracic surgeon with a reputation for improvisation. A few years ago a woman inhaled an open safety pin and PA designed an instrument to remove it prior to operating on her. Nowadays, he uses two eggbeaters he bought at Woolworth’s for 1s 6d each, as chest retractors. I have not run in PA’s theatre as heart surgery is so specialised. He has his own team of nurses, both in theatre and on the wards. They are able to do mitral valvotomys, which take all day, and which involve freezing the patient, but PA is anxious to do more.

I wheel the first Boyle machine closer to the sink, which I fill with soapy water. The machine is a two-tiered trolley with shelves about two feet square. Beneath the lower shelf is a drawer for different sized rubber masks and attachments. A rack on the side holds small tanks of oxygen, air and nitrous oxide, and these are controlled by glass flow meters, which rise from the top shelf.

As I scrub, I am wondering if this is history in the making and if PA succeeds in operating on hearts, whether I, who scrubbed an anaesthetic machine free of dog blood and hair, will be remembered. I imagine a movie’s list of credits rolling by: Philip Allison is the star, there is a supporting cast, and there, in tiny print, Manual Labourer – Jennifer Ross.

After I finish cleaning the machines, I seek out Daisy to find out what I am to do next.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.