Beginning Sanitation

It was a scene from hell, the air is filled with smoke and dust, the screams of men and the fire of artillery filled the air and grew louder and louder as the battle raged on.

This is 1854, the Crimean war. One of the most important battles in Europe to date, where Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia fought against Russia to halt their expansion of the Danube region.

But this is merely the background of our story, as the true story begins in Scutari, where Florence Nightgale, the Lady with the Lamp, and her team of 38 volunteer nurses arrives in the military hospital to witness a horrifying sight.

As all around them lay too many sick and injured men, soldiers that fought and bled for their country, who were moaning in pain, swaddled with filthy bandages and unclean linen.

Nightingale felt her fists clench as she surveyed the room, peripherally aware of the horrified mutters and shuffling feet of her companions as they moved past her to begin treating and aiding whoever they could.

Dirty bandages and linen that looked like the haven't been changed for days, perhaps weeks even, evidenced by the crusty yellowish stain that could be seen right through the bandages. Perhaps the reason why the illnesses such as typhus, typhoid, cholera, and dysentery ran rampant and killed more men than the wounds from battle ever did.

She taking a deep breath, and holding back the urge to wretch at the pungent smell of blood, bile and unwashed bodies, she forced herself to move through and around the room and beyond, looking intently at each and every corner, examining the hospital's condition, the state of the injured men and amount of equipment they had to work with.

And she quickly found herself seething.

'Unacceptable!'

It was filthy, infested, lacking in utilities such as basins, towels and soaps worst of all, Medicine and other essentials were in short supply.

No wonder this hospital had people dying left and right!

Why are the injured recovering in such conditions?

They had given their lives for this war and this was how they were treated?

'Unacceptable!

UNACCEPTABLE!'

This was Horrid! Unforgivable! Inexcusable!

This would not stand!

Nightingale could not accept this, something had to change, and she would do everything in her power to change it.

Spinning on her heel and changing her course towards the administration office, her mind quickly works to try to improve the hospital's situation.

'First we care for who we can and ease their pain, then we acquire supplies, towels, shirts, utensils and food. And finally we clean this place until it shines, sanitize the hospital to get rid of possible methods of infection.'

After finishing her, admittedly rough, plan and finally arriving to her destination, she nods to herself and takes a deep breath. She takes a few moments adjust her attire and ready herself to talk to the men in charge, to try and convince them and correct their course of action, to save as many lives as they can.

It was their duty after all.

And so Florence Nightingale went, opening the door and striding inside to air her ideas and concerns, not knowing she would change the course of the world and save thousands of lives in the process.

And engrave herself into human history as the Lady with the Lamp.

Day 7: Hospital