Unexpected Experiences
Like today, surgeries did not always go as planned, and a calm demeanor was expected of the assisting nurses. School of Nursing alumni encountered a wide range of surgical experiences. Some of the more notable episodes included doctors throwing instruments in anger and a nurse helping to clamp veins during surgery after the assisting medical intern fainted. Another nurse recalled a certain doctor who would lose his cool during surgeries and had to calm himself by walking up and down the hallway with a towel wrapped around his head. Some nurses in the early 1960s recall the Chief of Surgery at University Hospital wearing sandals during operations!
Nurses (left) Emily Mae Parrott, Class of 1904, (right) Lila Trenholm, Class of 1905, and Doctor Winslow with fractured skull patient after successful surgery, Surgical Amphitheater University Hospital, 1904, Alumni Association Collection.