Annual report of the Staffordshire General Infirmary, Stafford : 1938.

  • Staffordshire General Infirmary (Stafford, England)
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Staffordshire General Infirmary, Stafford : 1938. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Miss Joyce seconded, and the vote was carried with acclamation. Tribute to the very material help Lord Lichfield had been able to give the Institution during the year was paid by Mr. F. M. Bostock in proposing his re-election as president. Mr. J. Salmon seconded, and the motion was carried unanimously. On the motion of Mr. T. B. Steadman, seconded by Mr. J. Liversage, J.P., Major Moat was re-elected hon. treasurer. On the proposition of the Deputy Mayor (Mr. Gordon Amies), seconded by Mr. T. Whitehouse, Mr. W. H. Westhead was re-elected hon. auditor. Mr. Whitehouse took the opportunity of congratulating the Committee in recognising the enormous amount of voluntary work done by the honorary auditor by electing him a Vice-President of the Infirmary. PRESENTATION OF AN “ IRON LUNG.” The Deputy Mayoress (Mrs. F. G. Ames) formally presented to the Institution the “ iron lung ” and oxygen tent purchased out of the fund she started during her year of office. It was a very happy day for her when she was able to obtain the amount required for an iron lung, she said. She paid a warm tribute to the people of Stafford and the surrounding district for their generosity, and to her personal friends, and said the fund grew beyond all her expectations so that it became possible to purchase not only an “ iron lung ” but an oxygen tent as well. She hoped that both would be of great use in the future. (Hear, hear.) Formally accepting the gifts on behalf of the Infirmary, Lord Lichfield said he hoped it would never be necessary to use them, but no hospital was complete without such equipment. They were extremely grateful to Mrs. Amies for the way in which she undertook to raise the money. They all realised that she did it at a time when she was Mayoress, which meant that she was very much occupied with other public business. That made them all the more grateful to her. He added that both Coun. and Mrs. Amies had always had the welfare of the institution at heart, as they knew from the work the former had done as chairman of the Stafford Pageant and Carnival Committee. “ I assure you that our thanks are very sincere for the great trouble you have been to in this matter,” he added. Dr. J. M. Holmes added his thanks on behalf of the honorary medical staff. He explained that the “ iron lung ” was known as the Drinker res¬ pirator, and its main purpose was to provide a method of giving prolonged artificial respiration. If necessary, it could be kept up for months, or even years—-they would have read of the American boy who was brought back from China in one. The need for the apparatus was very limited—he had' only known two cases requiring such apparatus in the three and a half years he had been associated with the institution—but when the need arose, having such apparatus at hand would prove of great help. As to the types of cases that could be treated by the “ iron lung,” he mentioned cases of drowning and gassing. If such cases could be rushed to the institution in time, the apparatus might prove effective in resucitating them. The apparatus itself, he added, was far better in construction than the “ iron lungs ” Lord Nuffield was giving to institutions. There had been a lot of criticism in the medical press that the Nuffield “ iron lung ” would not stand up to hard wear and tear because of its wooden construction. The “ iron lung ” the Stafford institution now had, however, was made of metal, and would last for very many years. He mentioned that the oxygen tent had been used eight times already. A vote of thanks to the President for presiding concluded the meeting.
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