Remembering Her Patients

Well, I can remember one chap, he was a lieutenant, and I was on the neuro ward. The chaps coming in had some, had an injury either on one, one side of the brain or the other, and they'd, a lot, many times they'd go to the OR, sometimes we'd just get them in and they might die before that. But this chap had gone to the operating room and had one side of his brain patched up. And he came out and he stayed with us a little longer than usually at a CCS. Usually there probably one day, two. I think he stayed three or so. And he stayed a little longer. We either sent them, as I say, down the line or they went to Basingstoke, in England. He was, was British and he stayed, I guess they were, he couldn't go so soon. And we got, sort of, to, to know him a little bit and at first he didn't speak and at first, then he'd say, "Water," and, you know, we'd give him a drink. And then he'd say, "Water, please." And one day, I looked at him, I get kind of sad when I think of it, he said, "Water Sister, please," and a big smile come on his face. And I guess we stood there and did the same. There was a couple of us. But I don't know. He went back then. But I always think of it.

Interviewer: And you never saw him again?

Never saw him. No. He, I would say now, knowing what I know now, that he probably had a good chance at, they were, rehabilitating, whether it was that side or it must have been the side of talking that was damaged, that if they could work with it, he had a good chance and he was healthy. He was healthy in other ways. Nice, nice young chap. Probably be 24 or 25. And I, I often wonder and I think, "My God, I wonder how that fellow, how he got along? " But, but that stays in my, my memory a lot.