OUR HEROES

Mistakes aside, her transfer of duty came as a welcome relief.

A young Navy nurse barely keeps her head above water.

After I graduated in 1954 from Naval Hospital Corps School in Great Lakes, Illinois, I was assigned to the Navy hospital at Camp Pendleton, California. My first assignment was night duty in the emergency room. We were busy that first night. The pregnant wife of a Marine came in ready to deliver. The doctor told me to prepare her for an examination.

Well, being a very green recruit fresh out of school with no experience, I had the woman take off all her clothes. That was my first mistake.

The doctor’s face got red with anger and he shouted, “I just wanted to see how far apart her contractions were!”

In a sarcastic voice he then asked if I thought I could locate a stretcher. Again, being green, I started looking for a stretcher. When I had a hard time finding one, I should have known something was wrong. I looked up and down the long hallways before finally finding a stretcher hanging on a wall. After cleaning off all the spiderwebs, I headed back to the ER.

That was my second mistake.

The impatient doctor took one look at the stretcher and yelled, “Any idiot would know I meant a gurney!”

At school we’d been taught the difference between a stretcher and a gurney. He went on to say at the top of his voice, “I ought to make you carry this naked woman all by yourself to the delivery room!”

As you might guess, it didn’t take long before I was transferred out of the ER. I wound up in charge of the medical unit, working the night shift alone with six or seven patients.

But I was in California, with its beautiful beaches and a handsome young sailor to distract me. Who had time to sleep while off duty?

One night it got especially quiet at work; all the patients were sleeping. Struggling to stay awake, I spread a magazine across the edge of a narrow medical sink.

The next thing I knew,

I felt water splashing my face. I had fallen asleep with my head in the sink and someone had turned on the water.

I checked all the patients, who were still fast asleep. I checked the hallways but no one was there. I never found out who turned on the water, but believe me, I was wide awake the rest of the shift.