Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Valence, to her relatives, regarding making a mistake with the writing paper; the doctor was so busy at the 201 that he sent word to dress minor wounds and send on major ones; description of badly wounded hand with a ruptured radial artery and gangrene; another was sent on and 'a third was removed, being from Tahiti and therefore not considered a patient for the Annexe'; Mlle. Combe is slow because she is wary of over-tiring herself, which is frustrating for Amelia; Dr. Lavoiepierre is a British subject and had to go again to Marseilles to be interviewed about being called up, but his medical service continues to exempt him; Amelia is now doing simple dressings, and helping with the treatment of Liénart whose hand needs the aseptic bath of eau oxygénée in sterilised water; a grenade exploded in his hand, blowing off two fingers and a thumb; description of injuries to the remaining fingers and the continued treatment; she has begun a process of massage in the aseptic bath; 'the flesh is becoming so natural that it is time to shape the stumps while the ends are still open'; description of her work on the hand and the results; use of ether and aseptic Vaseline in dressing; she is having more massage to do, including a case, possibly of tubercular arthritis, affecting a knee and making it bent; a gouttière or wire frame keeps it straight at night and she has managed to straighten it with massage when an operation was thought necessary; the case of a badly bruised toe for which nothing seemed to work and for which massage was considered the last resort; it may have been caused by a crush injury, breaking the bone and crushing the blood-vessels; she has been given a bricquet or cigarette lighter by Taillefer and encloses rubbings of the aeroplane designs on each side [present on the the third sheet]. [Letter breaks off without signature] |