An Island Nurse

The nurse’s work was much more diverse than you would think. Some people thought that because Bessie had medical knowledge she could conduct any medical procedure, perhaps even carrying out veterinary practices.

One day a neighbour came running in, shouting “Come quick nurse, his insides are hanging oot”.  As Bessie grabbed her medical bag she was fearful for the woman’s husband, wondering what on earth he could have done to get such an injury.  She was methodically going through all the procedures in her mind for this type of accident, such as making sure all entrails were lathered in antiseptic lotion and accounted for. 

As she rushed up the road she wondered how much blood the man would have lost, and how she could get it made up quickly. On entering the house imagine her surprise when she saw the woman’s husband safe, holding their sheep dog in a tin bath whilst blood was running out of its belly. Bessie felt both relief and disbelief at the sight in front of her.

She immediately told the woman to go and get a bag of flour, which she quickly administered to the belly of the dog and wrapped the wound with an old shirt. Eventually the bleeding stopped, and the dog was weak but stable.  The tear was stitched up, thanks to Bessie’s sewing skills learnt at school, and antiseptic administered to the wound. Typical of Bessie’s caring nature she returned the following day to check on the animal. As Bessie left the woman gave her some baking as a gesture of goodwill, which Bessie accepted with gratitude. 

A previous medical emergency occurred a short time before Bessie married. She had come over to the island to stay with Sinclair’s sister for the night. His brother-in-law, had come in to see Sinclair’s father, as one of his stirks, or young cows, had cut a main artery in its nose on a fence and was bleeding profusely. There was no way the vet could come across from the mainland in time and they thought they would lose the beast.  As usual Bessie offered to come and help but, by the time they got to him the stirk had lost so much blood it was down on its knees.

On seeing the plight of this helpless animal Bessie told Sinclair’s brother-in-law to go and get some turpentine and one of the bairn’s nappies. She cleaned away all the blood clots from the stirk’s nose, and took turpentine and cotton wool and shoved it up his nose then wrapped it with a terry nappy, binding it round his nose.  She then gave it a bottle of salted water to replenish some of the blood it had lost.  She told Sinclair’s brother-in-law that it would take time, but they would know after twenty-four hours if the stirk would be okay.

The next morning Sinclair’s brother-in-law came into the house and Bessie asked how the stirk was.  He said it was much better, but was unable to eat as the nappy was bound around its mouth so tightly.  Bessie told him to snip the corners just enough to allow it to get its mouth open to eat, but not to remove the binding.  This he did and the stirk made a full recovery, so much so that it was later sold at the mart for a considerable amount of money.