Streams of Mercy

by Lauraine Snelling

  “You mean for those of us already exposed? Keep in mind that not everyone who is exposed develops diphtheria.”

  Astrid nodded. “I know.”

  Elizabeth’s weakened state concerned her far more than she worried about herself. As far as they knew, neither of them had ever had it or been exposed.

  “I have scrubbed my hands and arms nearly raw and worn a mask.” Elizabeth held up her chapped red hands. “Even with Ingeborg’s salve.”

  Astrid stopped and listened. “The train whistle! Thank you, Lord. Thorliff and Daniel will bring the antitoxin to the dock, and we can get started immediately. Please, God, let there be enough. Whatever enough means.” Her mor had reminded her on the telephone just this morning that God was still in charge of not only all creation but here in Blessing. She wished He would make it plainer.

  When they left the office, the smiles on the faces of their nurses lightened the dark of the hospital in spite of all the coughing and crying.

  “I have the list of everyone here,” Miriam said, “with checks by those who have either had diphtheria or been inoculated in the past. All forty of our syringes are sterilized, and I’m praying they sent more of those too. Can you think of anything else?” She looked to both of them.

  “No, you’ve done a good job. Once we take care of everyone here, Sandra will prepare those waiting with a scrub of carbolic acid on their upper arm, and Dr. Commons and you will give the inoculations.” Astrid glanced to Elizabeth, who nodded.

  “And the others?”

  “It all depends on how much the hospital sent us.”

  Miriam turned to answer a question, and Astrid looked out a window to see the rising steam from the train behind the boardinghouse, which blocked the view of the train itself.

  “Can you hold this little one for a bit?” Mercy asked, coming down the hall. “I think she is not getting worse, at least.”

  Astrid took the child in her arms and rocked her gently. While her breathing was still difficult, Mercy might be right. “Oh, little one, please get better. We need some good news here.” She laid the child down in the nearest empty crib as soon as she saw Thorliff and Daniel out the window, each with a handcart loaded with boxes and crates. They parked them and stepped back.

  Astrid stared at her brother and husband. Oh, how she wanted to go out there, go home with Daniel, back to her own bed to sleep for a week. To go out to the farm, to get out of this pestilence, the sounds, the smells, the fear. But she couldn’t. Miriam and Sandra went out and brought the carts back to the hospital.

  “Thank you,” she called from the door and opened it for the two to wheel the carts in and to the supply room. The boxes on one cart were labeled Carbolic acid. There were four boxes on the other cart. Once in the supply room, she peeled the envelope off the top box and slit it open. With the sheet unfolded, she read the contents. One hundred doses of antitoxin, fifty intubation kits, a box of tracheal tubes, a box of scalpels, and a few other miscellaneous supplies. She unfolded the letter behind it and read it swiftly.

  Dear Drs. Elizabeth and Astrid,

  I’m sorry we could not send more, but we need to keep a certain amount here for emergencies. We have ordered more delivered to you from New York, but that will take a couple more days. They said it would ship yesterday.

  I suggest you use your best judgment on how to use what we could send. This must be kept cold to keep it viable. That is why we included ice and shipped it in the refrigerated car. They do not have those on all the trains, as you well know.

  We are praying for all of you and are so grateful we implemented inoculations for all our nurses in training. We’ll be sending three more nurses in training, along with one resident, just as soon as we can, to help take the pressure off. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do. We well know the power of praying and both have been and will continue.

  Dr. Red Hawk has had a breakout on the reservation too. That is part of the reason why we had no more to ship.

  With heartfelt prayers,

  Nurse Korsheski

  She had signed it with her usual illegible signature.

  Astrid looked up. “Sorry, I’ll read it aloud.” She did so and, when finished, folded it back up and said, “Open the boxes. Put the crates over in the corner for later. Let’s get started. Oh, and we need to sterilize all the syringes in the box immediately and the other things after.” She knew she sounded like an army general and that they already knew what needed to be done, but she couldn’t stop herself. All she could think was Get as many people protected as quickly as possible.

  Using the sterilized syringes they already had on hand, Miriam started with Elizabeth and then Astrid.

  “Do you have a sore throat, fever, or cough?” She asked that of every person she inoculated while the others continued caring for their patients.

  “I’m going to intubate the man in room one as soon as the OR is set up,” Astrid told Miriam. “If we can’t get that down his throat, we’ll do a tracheotomy.”

  “It’s all scrubbed and set up ready for you.”

  Astrid motioned to Reverend Solberg and Tonio to carry the man in while she scrubbed.

  “I thought you were sleeping,” she said when Deborah showed up at the sink beside her.

  “I was. Got my shot, and now I am here.”

  Astrid nodded toward the reverend. “John, would you scrub too? We’ll immobilize him as much as we can, but we might need more muscle.”

  Before she had Vera start the anesthetic, she tried to explain to the man what she was going to do, but she knew he did not comprehend her. “Put him under. We’ll need to block his mouth open, so he can’t bite, and see if we can slide this down. And tie down his arms and legs.” She tossed the belt, which had been fashioned from three saddle cinches, over his chest.

  Intubation kit. This must be the latest thing in Chicago. She pulled the cardboard box open to find tubing, a rubber device to hold the mouth open, and a dose of morphine neatly labeled. “We won’t need everything in this kit; for instance, the morphine. He’s already under. But when you open one of these, throw nothing away. Not even the box. We don’t know what we will need next.”

  By the time they’d finished, all of them were dripping wet. But the man could breathe. While Reverend Solberg was praying for healing and peace for the man, Astrid nearly buckled under a wave of exhaustion. She gripped the table for a moment, then headed for the scrub room to remove her apron and hair covering, along with the mask.

  Back on the ward floor, she could see a group of townspeople gathering about a hundred feet in front of the hospital door. Thorliff was trying to get their attention. “Didn’t he post something about us using the school for inoculations?”

  “I thought so.” Solberg heaved a sigh. “Fear can do terrible things to people. I’ll go talk to them. Your plan is a good one, Astrid. Just get Miriam ready to go.”

  “She has to take a bath and get dressed in clothes that have not been in here. Trygve is waiting with them out back. We’ve curtained off a bathing area. Tell them an hour.”

  “You’re going to do them before the train people?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you can live with that?”

  “Yes. These are my people and this hospital is supported by them. I pray I am doing the right thing. Well, if not the right thing, the best thing. Since we know more antitoxin will be here in two days . . .”

  “How many doses have you given?”

  Astrid counted down the list. “Six including you. Since you weren’t sure . . .”

  “I know and I appreciate that. So first we do those who have been exposed. I will give the list to Thorliff.”

  “Read him the list and let him write them down. The paper may be contaminated. After those are finished, give the shot to those who run businesses here, as they are in contact with more outsiders. Then all the immediate town children. Unless this travels on the wind too, the farmers should be safe. As long as no one has come t
o town.” She heaved a sigh.

  “You are doing the best that you can. Do you want me to start telephoning people to make sure everyone goes over there?”

  “Good idea. If only we had been wiser and not allowed anyone to leave the hospital after that first night.”

  “Hindsight is always perfect. You do your best and count on God to take care of the rest.” He took the list and headed out the door.

  Astrid answered the ringing telephone.

  “I have Sophie on the line,” Gerald said.

  Astrid heaved another sigh. She seemed to be doing a lot of that. She also knew that Sophie had gotten furious with Thorliff. “Put her on.” The connection clicked. “How can I help you, Sophie?”

  “You would not believe what just happened. That Stetler just stormed out of here because I refused to serve him supper. I thought the train was quarantined.”

  “It is!”

  “That man should be shot. He brought this on us all and then he comes in here like nothing is wrong. Does he have no principles at all?”

  “All right, Sophie, this is what you need to do. Do you have carbolic acid?”

  “Some.”

  “Good. Use that to scrub every surface he may have touched or breathed on. I’ve not asked him if he has immunity, but still, he is contaminated. Scrub, dump the water, and scrub again. Who all did he talk to?”

  “Just me. The others were in the kitchen.”

  “Scrub the porch and steps too and slosh the wash over your walkway, just to be careful. You need to get over to the school as one who is possibly contaminated. But first come here and bring clean clothes. You can come here, wash in our special place, and get dressed to go get your inoculation. Our people here will then boil the clothes you are wearing.”

  “I heard to burn everything.”

  “Carbolic acid works the same.” Astrid fought to keep the simmering rage under control and out of her voice. “Please, Sophie, I beg of you, do not tell the others about this, or we might have a lynch mob on our hands.” Lord, please, let no one be on the line for this conversation.

  “In Blessing?”

  “In Blessing. I’m afraid it may have come to that.” Astrid thought back to her conversation with Thorliff. Obviously, Sophie had had time to cool down. “I never dreamed we’d have something like this. And to think a circus coming to town is usually such a happy event. Do you understand what you need to do?”

  “Ja, I do. Thank you.”

  Astrid hung up. Should she call Gerald, since he’d been the operator? Surely he didn’t listen in. Surely. Please, Lord, let this be so. Probably it is a good thing people are not getting together.

  When Reverend Solberg came back in the hospital, she told him what had happened.

  He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. “The man has no sense whatever. Thomas told me Stetler had made comments about needing to get the train going again.”

  “How can he? He doesn’t have people for his acts. Too many of them are sick. He lost his elephant trainer, and his lion tamer is too weak to perform. Even his engineer was sick, although he’s recovering nicely. And if he moves on, he spreads diphtheria to the next stop. I can’t believe he had the gall—or maybe the stupidity—to break quarantine and get off the train.” She sucked in a breath of her own.

  John grimaced. “I’ll make those telephone calls and we’ll talk more. Oh, and I reminded Thorliff to make sure the residents of the apartment house are inoculated too. Some of them don’t read English well enough to understand the danger.”

  She nodded. “Some of them do, though. They’ve been wonderful about helping if they had it before. Dr. Deming has quite a crew out there, and others are helping Mrs. Geddick in the kitchen. That’s why Tonio has been helping in here. You emphasized to Thorliff that children came first, then the old people, and finally the others?”

  John smiled. “I did, and you know Miriam will handle that well.”

  At least Miriam gets to see her family up close. Sometimes the need for time in her husband’s arms walloped her.

  Hours later, after supper and evening rounds, Astrid hid out in her office, wishing she could blot out the sounds of sickness and not just the sight. She forced herself to concentrate on a minimum of paper work, drank more coffee, and rubbed her eyes. Just for a minute, she promised herself as she swung her tired and aching feet up onto the corner of the desk and leaned back in her chair, head propped and burning eyes closed. For just a few minutes.

  She jerked awake at a knock on the door. “Yes?”

  “Are you all right?” Reverend Solberg.

  “I am. Come on in.”

  “They have run out of antitoxin, but the most vulnerable are taken care of. The others will get theirs when the next shipment arrives, and then we’ll move out to the nearby farms.”

  “Did someone think to tell my mother to get the shot?”

  “Yes, Thorliff did, because she is one of the older ones.” John looked just as weary as Astrid felt.

  She heaved a sigh of relief that stretched into a yawn. “Pardon me, I—”

  “You do not need to apologize for catching some sleep. I have something rather funny to tell you—well, not funny, but amusing.”

  “I need a smile.”

  “As do we all. Thomas heard Stetler storming on about not getting a meal at the boardinghouse, breaking quarantine, and it made him furious. So he and Mr. Sidorov grabbed Stetler, hustled him into his own quarters, locked him in, and kept the key. Those on the train who were well enough to do so applauded.”

  Astrid rolled her lips together to keep from laughing out loud, but the giggle snuck out anyway.

  “When he yelled more, Thomas said if he didn’t keep quiet, he’d call the sheriff up in Grafton and have him thrown in jail for breaking quarantine and for endangering his performers by not getting medical help at the first sign of something so contagious.”

  Astrid gave up and laughed. “Good for Thomas Devlin. Bless that man.”

  John continued, “And something you may wish to tell the circus people—indeed, everyone on the train. It might bring them comfort. We have set aside a block of plots in the cemetery just for the dead from the circus. The survivors may want to stop by Blessing someday to pay their respects to those lost, and the graves will all be in one place. They won’t have to wander about seeking graves among strangers. We’ll carve wooden markers until we can bring in some stone for permanent markers. And Thomas was suggesting putting a red and yellow fence around it. It sounds rather gaudy to me, but he says the maintenance crew wants to give him plenty of red and yellow paint.”

  “I think red and yellow is totally appropriate. Gaudy, yes, but visitors will certainly find their cemetery section easily.”

  John chuckled; then his face sobered. “Some of the men from the circus, assisted by Thomas, are burying the bodies that came in on the train and those who have died here. And yes, they are being careful not to contaminate anyone. Some of our people will dig more graves.” His voice nearly broke. “They are having a hard time digging the small ones.”

  Astrid closed her eyes again, this time to squelch the tears. They shouldn’t have to bury children. Innocents! When would this nightmare end?

  Dear God, how can you let this keep on happening?

  CHAPTER 21

  How long, O Lord, how long before we see any improvement?”

  Miriam stared at her. “But, Dr. Astrid, we have been seeing improvement. For the last two days, we’ve had no deaths. And I think we’re seeing a turnaround on at least two of our children here. Their throats aren’t any more swollen and that awful membrane is no worse either. Out in the tent, people are still very ill but no worse. Those who have had lighter cases are eating and sleeping. Your mother’s cough syrup is really bringing relief.”

  Astrid sighed. “I’m sorry for complaining.” She cocked her head. Was that a new cough she heard, this one from the staff sleeping area? “Come with me.” As they stood, she asked, “W
ho is sleeping right now?”

  “Dr. Elizabeth, Sandy, I think Mercy . . . and Deborah.” She glanced down the ward as they strode to the other ward. They stopped at the curtain and studied those sleeping. Nothing seemed amiss.

  “No one has mentioned a sore throat?”

  “Not to me.”

  “Someone coughed from here. I was sure of it. I’ll check on them when they wake up. We are on day five, or is it six, since this all started?” She closed her eyes to think more clearly. “I am praying we are beyond the danger point with our people being exposed to the disease. I have to keep reminding myself that not everyone gets it so I don’t go around questioning everyone and asking to see their throats.”

  Together they turned to go back to the main area.

  The cough came again. Astrid whirled around. Elizabeth was shifting on her bed. From coughing? Had she looked any more pale than usual? If only she had not been the doctor on call that night. Elizabeth should never have gone on the train. Not with her health history. She needed sleep so desperately, would waking her make any difference in the long run? Would the antitoxin have had enough time to fight back if the disease was already started?

  “I must go back out to the tent,” Miriam said. “Dr. Commons is out there alone. Do you need me for anything more here?”

  “No more than usual. It’s time to shift patients into the steam room. Did you notice the steam condensing on the walls and running down? I’ve had Tonio mop that floor several times. I remember Mor holding babies and children over a steaming kettle when they had croup or congestion of any kind. She’d put a towel over her head so they had a tent. One of her folk remedy practices.” Astrid rolled her eyes. “Here I am detaining you. Sorry.”

  “I should be back fairly soon. I have the healthier people out there spooning broth and liquids into other patients. That’s a big help, even though they can’t stay at it very long. I think we should let that baby’s mother come take care of her now. May I tell her that? Or at least let her visit her baby?”

  “Ja, that would be good.” Astrid went to check the man with the tracheostomy in room one. He too was no worse. He was finally able to eat soft foods and respond to commands. Perhaps the swelling in his neck was going down. Stopping beside his bed, she checked his pulse, the motion making his eyes flutter open. A small part of a smile lit his face. She smiled and nodded.