You may chill a patient fatally without
giving him fresh air at all. And you can quite well, nay, much better,
give him fresh air without chilling him. This is the test of a good
nurse.
In cases of long recurring faintnesses from disease, for instance,
especially disease which affects the organs of breathing, fresh air to
the lungs, warmth to the surface, and often (as soon as the patient can
swallow) hot drink, these are the right remedies and the only ones. Yet,
oftener than not, you see the nurse or mother just reversing this;
shutting up every cranny through which fresh air can enter, and leaving
the body cold, or perhaps throwing a greater weight of clothes upon it,
when already it is generating too little heat.
"Breathing carefully, anxiously, as though respiration were a function
which required all the attention for its performance," is cited as a not
unusual state in children, and as one calling for care in all the things
enumerated above. That breathing becomes an almost voluntary act, even
in grown up patients who are very weak, must often have been remarked.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173