Hospitals for TB

[DavidWW]

Believe it or not, the treatment worked more often than not, although it could take many months.

David

[Russell]

Remember that there was no active treatment for TB until they discovered Streptomycin. P.A.S. and I.N.A.H. Even then it took all three drugs in combination to kill off the TB bacillus.
Treating people with fresh air and sunshine with lots of good food and milk in their diet was a terrific change from the environments they came from.
10 of a family squeezed into 1 or 2 small rooms with outside sanitation - If you were fortunate it was on the half landing. Only cold water on tap and no baths (weekly trip to the public baths for washing people, and washing clothes in the Steamie)
Reducing the problems of cross-infection and improving general health worked wonders - if it was not too late
I remember a patient in one of the TB wards in psychiatry who slept on an open verandah, throwing back the rubber cover which protected his bedding, along with a huge mound of snow which had drifted over him during the night, and jumping out of bed in his bare feet and night shirt full of the joys of life.
He had been free of TB for years but liked the lifestyle he had become used to.
Perhaps we keep the central heating up too high these days.

Russell

[joette]

I nursed on a chest Ward in what had been the "Fever Hospital" in Duntocher AKA Hardgate.We had some staff who had worked in the old days of TB just as Russell described with the snow blowing in on them.
My Great-Grandparents removed the windows from the bedroom where my Uncle was being nursed at home for TB & I remember my Granny saying that often the snow would be on his bed.It did not cure him & he died aged 21.They lived in a semi with their own water supply & toilet & were not overcrowded.Both my Great-Grandparents were well known for their healing powers & often saved other peoples children but sadly lost two of their own plus my Uncle who was raised as their son.

[Muriel]

Philipshill, just outside East Kilbride was originally a sanitorium before it became a specialist orthopaedic centre - I remember being in there in the winter of 1976 when there was snow & the french windows onto the verandahs were very, very draughty!

Muriel

[d.mackechnie]

Thanks for all your replies, I should have asked if it was possible to view any of the hospital records for about 1900, looking for a death of Peter McEachern/McKechnie, its not on S.P. if anyone has followed the item on the History and Geography section named Rashfield Farm you would see there is another possible side to looking for Peter but my aunt has another version which was passed down to her from her gran so I am trying to dis-spell either one or the other, again Thanks to everyone.

[DavidWW]

Thanks for all your replies, I should have asked if it was possible to view any of the hospital records for about 1900, looking for a death of Peter McEachern/McKechnie, its not on S.P. if anyone has followed the item on the History and Geography section named Rashfield Farm you would see there is another possible side to looking for Peter but my aunt has another version which was passed down to her from her gran so I am trying to dis-spell either one or the other, again Thanks to everyone.

See http://talkingscot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6002

David