HYPNOTISM USED FOR AN ANAESTHETIC
Mrs. Ramsey and Miss Holland emerged from the dressing-rooms after a
trifling delay, and found Hilda's party and Dr. Morris waiting in the
foyer. Just as they were about making their way to their respective
motors they heard a sudden commotion and wild cries from the street, and
a crowd of people surged in, crying that a child had been killed by an
automobile. Both Dr. Earl and Dr. Morris rushed toward the street as a
man came in carrying a little girl of perhaps ten years of age, bleeding
profusely from the mouth and the scalp, with one leg evidently broken.
The mother of the child, a comely woman of thirty, followed, wringing
her hands. Her excitement verged on hysteria, but at the sight of Dr.
Morris she controlled herself by a mighty effort.
"To the hospital, to the hospital, Dr. Earl," peremptorily exclaimed Dr.
Morris, as Dr. Earl threw aside his coat and, rolling back his sleeves
and directing the man to place the child on a table in one of the
ante-rooms, began to examine the character of the injuries.
"Oh, don't take my poor child to the hospital. I know she will die if
she goes there; bring her home; it is only a few blocks," the mother
pleaded with Dr. Morris, whom she seemed to know.
"Don't waste time here. Where is the telephone? I will call an ambulance
immediately."
"I don't want her taken to the hospital," said the woman sullenly.
"This is no place to operate on a hysterical child," Morris answered.
"She need not be kept in the hospital, but she should certainly be taken
there. I know Dr. Earl will agree with me."
In the meantime, Earl had completed his examination. Silvia Holland was
watching him anxiously. As Morris spoke he looked up and caught her eye.
"It is only a simple fracture, and the scalp wounds are slight. I
suppose we could get along, if we can get hot water and the necessary
appliances," he said dubiously, and then added, turning to the woman,
"Dr. Morris is quite right, madame, in advising the hospital, and I
assure you there is no danger."
The woman turned pleading eyes to Silvia. "She's all I have, and I can't
let her be taken away from me. Couldn't we go home? It is only a few
blocks away, and I know I can make her comfortable. Oh, please, please
don't let them take her away!"
Miss Holland looked at Dr. Earl and put her arm around the woman
protectingly. "If it isn't any worse than that," she said hesitatingly,
"don't you think you could do as she asks? Setting a simple fracture
isn't a very complicated operation, is it?"
Earl smiled. "Oh, no," he said, "it can be done in a comparatively few
minutes."
"Then why not do it," she said, "and spare the mother all this
protracted agony, and get the child home?"
"Because there are no appliances here to administer an anaesthetic or do
anything else properly," answered Morris impatiently, "and no one can
tell from a cursory examination whether or not there are other injuries,
to say nothing of the danger from septicaemia if the work is done in a
clumsy, slipshod manner."
Earl colored, and Miss Holland replied with some spirit that even the
absence of the usual accessories need not imply clumsiness of method,
and again asked Earl if he could not manage where they were. He turned
to the mother.
"If you insist upon it, I have no doubt that I can do all that is
necessary without bad results. As to the anaesthetic, we can dispense
with that."
"I will have nothing to do with the case under these circumstances,"
Morris said angrily.
The woman hesitated, and then said firmly, "I should prefer the other
gentleman to take charge. I won't have her taken to the hospital."
"Very well," said Earl, and taking a notebook from his pocket he wrote
out a list of necessary appliances, bandages, alcohol, antiseptic
solutions, surgeon's scissors, needles, silk and thread, and giving it
to Frank bade him hurry to the drug-store around the corner which
carried surgical supplies and procure them, and also to bring a box that
would do for splints.
"I must have an assistant," he said, and without a word, Miss Holland
improvised an apron from some of the bunting that was in evidence
everywhere, and put herself at his disposal. He sent all the others out
of the room, and bent over the child for a few minutes. What did he do?
Miss Holland watched, but could not tell. The moaning ceased, the little
limbs relaxed, and the child fell into a quiet sleep.
The mother stood just outside the door, listening with strained
attention, and after two or three impatient turns about the foyer,
Morris joined her.
"You can do as you please so far as I am concerned," he said in a low
tone, "but I warn you that you are taking big risks. Allie is nervous
and excitable at any time, and to-night she is close to hysterics, and
she won't get over the shock of even a simple operation in a hurry,
especially if he is fool enough to attempt it without an anaesthetic."
The woman wavered for a moment, and then turned away without a word, and
shrugging his shoulders Morris strode down toward the entrance. A moment
later Silvia Holland came out of the ante-room.
"You can go in now," she said, "only don't disturb your child; she is
sleeping and you must be very quiet. Did you see Dr. Morris? Oh, there
he is."
Mindful of the amenities of life, she hurried to his side. His face was
dark with something more than anger, and did not lighten as she laid the
tips of her fingers on his arm.
"I know you will excuse me, Orrin," she said gently. "You mustn't be
angry with me, but I really feel as if I ought to see this through; the
poor woman needs me. You will forgive me?"
He looked at her with sudden passion. "Oh, yes, I forgive _you_," he
said, with unmistakable emphasis on the pronoun, and was gone. Silvia
Holland looked after him for a moment, conscious that, accustomed as she
was to his moods, this was quite a new one, and then joined Dr. Earl,
who had come into the foyer to say goodnight to the Ramseys and Frank
Earl, who had returned with the surgical appliances and found nothing
more that he could do. "By the way, old man," Dr. Earl called to his
brother-in-law, "send the machine back if you don't mind," and with a
word of thanks he re-entered the ante-room, followed by Miss Holland,
and closed the door against further interruption.
There was a sink in the room, with hot and cold water, and he directed
Miss Holland to cleanse the basin and implements in the boiling water,
and follow this up by dipping them in an antiseptic solution; in the
meantime he ripped the box to pieces, and selected two strips, which he
whittled into splints, shaping them to the child's leg, and working with
great rapidity. The bandages, cotton and other things were laid out upon
the table, and then he took the basin and a cloth and washed the wounds
on the head, putting back the tousled locks as carefully and tenderly as
a woman.
"Ordinarily," he said to his assistant, "I should have done this first,
but my examination showed that this injury is very slight. Of course she
has bled profusely, but it has come from the nose, and it looks pretty
bad, but there is nothing serious. Half a dozen stitches will be ample
for the scalp. Thread that needle with the silk, please. Now let me have
it." He took it from her, and in a moment the cuts on the head were
sewed, and he was pulling the leg into place, applying the cotton, the
splints and bandages, working deftly and silently. "The other needle
with the thread, please," he said, not looking up, and Miss Holland
handed it to him. Presently he raised his head and threw back his
shoulders.
"It is all done," he said simply, and called the mother. "I shall return
in a quarter of an hour," he said, "and bring her out of this sleep. Do
not try to rouse her, for you cannot. Do you not think, Miss Holland,
that it would be well for me to get a nurse to assist in taking the
little one home? I can 'phone when I return these instruments."
"Your machine is coming back, isn't it?" Miss Holland answered. "It
seems to me that with what help her mother and I can render that we
shall manage."
"Excellently," he said. "Then you will be on guard until my return; see
that the child is not disturbed. I shall be gone but a few minutes."
He readjusted his attire, and taking up his hat strode out of the
building, unconscious until he reached the door that half a dozen
energetic reporters were eagerly asking particulars. Finding him
unwilling to tell them anything more than the vaguest generalities, the
more resourceful returned to the improvised operating-room, and before
Silvia Holland knew it they had the story from her enthusiastic lips,
supplemented by a few facts gathered from the woman. For thus are
first-page sensations secured and created.
Silvia noticed that the woman spoke with visible reluctance, and she
herself passed over the controversy between Dr. Morris and Dr. Earl,
anxious to spare her friend any unnecessary annoyance.
"I am sorry, Mrs. Bell," she said contritely. "I didn't realize at first
that we were being interviewed."
"Oh, there is no harm done," the woman said quietly. "I hope the doctor
will not mind; won't he be back pretty soon?"
Almost as she spoke, his tall form was seen making its way through the
besieging ranks of the Fourth Estate. He waved them aside good
humoredly, but refusing to be interviewed, he took the child in his
strong arms and, followed by her mother and Miss Holland, made his way
to the auto. While she was in a profound sleep when he returned, she
wakened instantly when he commanded her to do so, and the cool night air
evidently refreshed her greatly as they drove to Mrs. Bell's home. Dr.
Earl carried the little one upstairs, gave her mother explicit
directions, and promising to call early the following day to adjust a
cast, left the apartment with Miss Holland.