The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2001, Page 24

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 56 #3
duty - she simply remained too exhausted
to keep up her former pace.
Then Emily was called to go to
Kerrobert to staff a new hospital there. She
stayed in this position for quite a few years.
She worked at her usual punishing pace,
but saw to it that she took a long break
every summer, travelling either to
Winnipeg, Gimli or Elfros to rest.
Illness strikes at Edam
Then came a disastrous episode. In the
mid-1920's, Emily was called to take over a
hospital at Edam. She was hired as matron
- it was the usual prairie scene; Edam had a
tiny little hospital - no thought had been
given to the matron's comfort - it was
assumed that she would live in the hospital
and be on 24 hour duty. That, if it had been
all, would have been alright!
Emily arrived at Edam, and was given
a tiny hospital room as her only living
quarters. What no one told her was that the
room's previous occupant had died of
Erysipelas.1 The staff, if there was any, had
not disinfected the room adequately, if at
all. Emily prompty contracted Erysipelas,
and very nearly followed her room's for-
mer inhabitant into the grave!
Emily became gravely ill within hours
of occupying the contaminated bed at
Edam. She went unconscious and lay in a
coma. As she had just been hired, and was
unknown in the town, no one knew who or
where her nearest kin were. Therefore they
arranged to announce her plight over radio,
asking for her family, if any, to contact the
Edam hospital at once. My grandmother,
Lizzie Arngrimson of Elfros didn't have a
radio—many did not in those days.
Fortunately, Mrs. Anna Kristjanson of
Elfros, whose husband Swain was a local
businessman, heard the broadcast and tele-
phoned the Arngrimson farm. Lizzie
phoned immediately to Edam and offered
to come. Emily was still unconscious so
there was no point in going, but Lizzie
kept in touch regularly. Emily was not
ready to leave hospital for quite some time.
Finally, the hospital sent a nurse with her
to Saskatoon and put her on the train to
Elfros.
When Emily arrived at Elfros she was
completely bald, the disease having caused
all her hair to fall out. She remained very
thin-haired the rest of her life.
Furthermore, the skin had come off her
face & hands, leaving new skin as fresh as a
baby's. She was very weak, and walked
only with support. She came in early
spring, and needed the entire summer to
recuperate. Memory fails, but that would
have been about the summer of 1928.
Incident at Vonda
Eventually, Emily returned to
Saskatoon and the nurses' registry. Other
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