Topic: Medical advances in technology within the life of the interviewee

Schooling

Gladys attended a mixed school, which was made up of classes of about forty pupils, which were banded according to ability. Gladys was in the A class. Gladys attended woodwork classes in school and the boys attended cookery classes. All the machinery was driven by hand.

Work

Once Gladys left school she started working for the co-operative shop. This was part shop work and partly office work. At this time there were no tills in place to record the sales. The system in place was one of wires and pulleys with cups attached to the wires. All the accounts and bills were processed in a central accounts office. This is were the money was kept and the change and the receipt were wired back to the shop floor.

After this she worked during the war as a telephone operator for civil defence. She describes the phones as old Bakelite stand phones with a mouthpiece and separate microphone. At this time not all calls could be direct dialled so some had to go through a switch board.

Nursing

Training and employment took place at King’s college London. During the war in the ward in which Gladys was working in was supposed to hold 24 but it actually held 40. The wards were not fitted with the curtains to separate the beds but screens, which had to be collected at the start of a shift, were used to separate the beds. The wards were heated by four coal fires which were located in the middle of the ward, Gladys describes these as being about 70 inches squared. There were two fireplaces one each side of the square. The coals had to be wrapped in newspaper so when the fires were made up in the night the patients would not be disturbed. The top floor was closed because of the danger of incendiary devices. The dressings had to be boiled to sterilise them. In the older hospitals this had to be done using gas stoves. At the newer hospitals, such as King’s, had medical rooms in which the dressings had to be packed into metal drums which were then taken to the heat sterilisation unit. In the late 50’s early 60’s central sterile supplies began to be produced, until this time everything had to be done by hand and heat treated. When the central sterile supplies came in the boilers were removed from the hospital. The new sterile supplies had a tape which colour coded to show when the supply had been through the heat treating process. The equipment came in already sterilised and once used they were returned to be resterilised.

One of the most useful advances for Gladys was the "Cardex" system. This system was used to record the daily events of each patient. This was simply a folder which was filled with pockets which contained cards for each patient. This eliminated the need to record each patient in turn. Previous to this the records had to be kept in a book in which each patients records had to written in turn. This wasted time as if patient in bed 1 was in theatre then the records could not be started. This was received with some hostility at first but once a trial had been conducted and the benefits became clear then the system was introduced.

Working with diabetes

In 1948 Gladys began working in the diabetic ward, the department had been opened just prior to the war. She worked under Dr Robin Lawerence. Before the discovery of insulin treatment diabetes was treated with a strict diet of bran, charcoal and such like. Robin Lawerence had suffered from diabetes at this time and become so disparaged with life that he had already consigned himself to death. It was at King’s that the first insulin treatments were given, this was in 1923. He then began studying insulin treatment and began treating diabetics with insulin. The monies for this were raised with the help of wealthy friends including H.G.Wells. The first insulin treatment came from two doctors, Banting and Best, who experimented with dog insulin in the treatment of diabetics. In the intensive care unit for the diabetic patients there was a mechanical bed which was wound by hand not assisted by electric motors but allowed the patient to be moved around in the bed. Insulin was first administered as injections and was fast acting insulin. There were no oral treatments, although they did start being developed as Gladys was working there. while working in the diabetic ward Gladys was helping to treat a two and a half year old from South Africa who had to be flown home for the treatment. The injections were administered into the leg or tummy or arm. The hypodermic needles were not disposable but had to be sterilised. The syringes themselves were glass with metal ends and plungers.

Kidney dialysis

In 1961/1962 the first kidney dialysis machine was introduced to King’s college hospital. This had to serve the population from King’s down to Brighton and then to Canterbury. This had to be moved about in a furniture removals van. In about 1970 organ transplants started. First transplants were heart lung transplants. Then later kidney transplants. Patients were prepared by sedating them and then placing them in baths and filling them with ice, to bring there temperatures down to a level were they can be operated on.. This period also saw the first open heart surgery. This operation would take all day and be carried out on average of twice a week. As it was mainly the London hospitals which had this facility people would travel from all over the country to London for the surgery. Gladys also describes one of the aids for breathing at that time as being a coffin like chamber in which the patient would lie with there head out. This was connected to the power supply. The case ran the whole length of the body and was enclosed to create a positive pressure inside, around the patients body.

The simple change of packing the laundry, trolley which had been specially made, instead of having to pack and unpack into the laundry cupboards. This simple change made the life of the ward sister much easier.