TRANSFUSION
Although the little wooden chapel called Church of Our Lady, Help of
Christians was nearer No. 7, I always said Mass in the chapel at No.
1. It was wonderfully edifying there in that little marquee chapel. I
don’t know who had had it erected, for it was standing when I went to
No. 1, but I do recall the devout congregations of walking wounded in
their hospital suits of light-blue fleeced wool; the hospital orderlies
who came so reverently; the white-veiled blue-clad nurses who came in
large numbers. Two Masses were said on Sunday so as to accommodate
the different shifts of Sisters, and every Sunday evening there was
Benediction and a short sermon.
I remember one morning noticing that the hospital orderly who served
the Mass trembled while answering the opening responses. He was a tall,
well-built young fellow with light hair, and usually his face had the
glow of excellent health; but when he passed me the cruets, I noticed
that his face had almost the pallor of death, and that although it was
a cold morning in early autumn little beads of perspiration stood out
on his white forehead.
After Mass I asked him if he were not well. Then he told me quietly
that he felt extremely weak, having given a quantity of his blood just
a few days before to save the life of a wounded soldier who was dying
from loss of blood. The wounded man was now recovering. It was not the
first time he had given his blood, and, he said, as he smiled painfully
and with the appearance of great weakness, he felt that it would not be
the last time.
As he moved about slowly and wearily, extinguishing the candles and
covering the altar, I felt a great admiration for this generous lad,
and I thought truly there are other heroic ways of giving one’s blood
than shedding it on the battlefield! It was quite a common occurrence
in different hospitals to go through the process of transfusion of
blood. The most necessary condition was that the blood of the donor be
adaptable to the system of the patient.