Everyman in health and in sickness / edited by Dr. Harry Roberts.

Harry Roberts

Date:: [1935]

Credit: Everyman in health and in sickness / edited by Dr. Harry Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

810/841 page 713

$you may profitably begin once the acute stage is past. Let your doctor examine anything but the mildest injury, for sprains have a trick of turning out to be fractures of the tip of a bone. Treat sprains with rest and cold applications; if the doctor approves you can begin massage and gentle movements on the second day. Fractures of the leg bones in young people are usually treated in bed. Boards should be put under the mattress, across the frame of the bed, to make a firm surface; the bed-clothes will have to be supported on a cradle, so that no weight falls on the leg. A temporary cradle can be made out of a stout cardboard box, or from a low stool; all you need is something to make an arch over the leg, strong enough to take the weight of the clothes. Nursing measures are otherwise as usual, except that it may be necessary, when the patient cannot be turned on his side, to change sheets from above downwards, drawing the rolled end under his shoulders; two people, one at each side of the bed, will be required to lift him while you bring the sheet under the pelvis. Fractures of the arm and collar-bone will not require nursing in bed as a rule, and fracture of the pelvis is best treated in hospital. The patient with a fractured skull must be kept completely at rest with his head between sandbags. Old people with fractures of the leg bones will usually be fitted with a walkmg-splint by the doctor because prolonged nursing in bed entails the risk of pneumonia. Other accidents which may be nursed at home are cuts and burns. Severe cuts will usually be stitched by the doctor, and will merely call for a change of dressing or for fomentation if sepsis arises. Always scrub your hands well with soap and warm water for five minutes before changing a dressing, or doing anything which involves contact with the wound. Handle the clean dressings as little as possible, and always lift them from the back so that the surface you place in contact with the wound is quite sterile. The modern treatment of burns is to spray them with tannic acid solution; this is a task for the doctor, but while you are waiting for him to arrive you will find that it eases the pain if you cover the burns with gauze dipped in tannic acid solution. Tablets for making up the solution to the right strength are now on the market, and you will be wise to keep some among your first-aid equipment. Never treat a burn with any oily substance; it interferes seriously with the use of tannic acid afterwards. The Art of Feeding Patients GENERAL PRINCIPLES. Sick people often take more interest in their food than sound people think. After all, it is extremely boring to be ill, and before long the patient begins to think of his next meal as a pleasant break in the$

Everyman in health and in sickness / edited by Dr. Harry Roberts.

Licence and re-use

Contents