Page 53 - A Visit with Clara Buffet, Glace Bay

ISSUE : Issue 68

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1995/6/1

dope addicts. And even then, at that age, I had to keep my mouth shut and say, Well, what difference does it make?... All they could give was morphine. That's all they had was morphine. But they were so scared of it.... The only good part of these terrible accidents is shock. Because you don't suffer as much, until the shock gets over. So that you feel numb, a great deal of the time. And then when they start to really suffer pain, then that's.... And I have great admiration for most of these people. But then when you started to move them--I remember when we got the first bed for broken backs, that we could turn them without moving them, you know. Which was a blessing.... And the bedsores, of course. Because you couldn't look after them. You couldn't keep them dry. You couldn't rub their backs. There wasn't enough circulation in the person's body getting to the part. And you saw--I sup pose you still see that in hospitals--a lot of it. Reminds you of war wounds. I remember that's one of the first things that Miss MacMillan did. She got an acci? dent ward. You don't remember the old hos? pital. But the entrance to go down into the basement was on sort of a ramp. And she got a room prepared right in that area. It was just opposite the elevator. With everything in it that anybody could want. And they came in dirty from the mine, because they didn't have the washing facilities that they have now in mines. They were cleaned up there, and sedated as much as they pos? sibly could, and the wounds all treated and WE BUY AND WE SELL AND WE'RE AS NEAR AS YOUR TELEPHONE Sid's Used Furniture Phone 564-6123 436 Charlotte Street. Sydney "Five university and high school girls, 16-19 years of age, have completed a course In baby sitting conducted by Mrs. Clara Buffett, R.N., at Town House. The course covered the general rules and ethics for baby sitters; signs of illness in children; simple first aid measures; elementary child psychology; types of playthings; and how to deal with specific problems that might arise. Mrs. Buffett is shown above with the successful candi? dates: Lee McCormick, Anita Burke, Edna Lee, Cynthia Stevens, and Mari? on O'Handley." (News photo) Giution iscritical... ' Department of Transportation and Communications Honourable Richie Mann Minister whatnot. And then moved up into the ward. But she did that, because she was a war nurse. In the First World War. And had seen a great deal of it. But, as I say, the great change came with penicillin. In which you could treat so many diseases that we had no treatment for. And when you look at tuberculosis now--it's just some tablets--instead of having all

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