Uncle Ed kept Bill in bed all the next day for fear of congestion of the
lungs. He told us that unless the patient kept perfectly quiet for a
couple of days, he was liable to be seized with a sudden attack of hard
breathing that might choke him to death in a short time. To stop such an
attack he told us that the best plan was to apply a mustard plaster to the
chest, and if the patient commenced to gasp, to start pumping the arms and
squeezing the waist so as to help him breathe. After Bill had come around
and was himself again Uncle Ed gave us a thorough drill in methods of
restoring the drowned. He laid down on the grass and made us practise on
him the various directions which he gave us.
How to Work Over a Patient Alone.
[Illustration: Fig. 90. Working alone over a Patient.]
"If you boys hadn't been so excited," he said, "I would have made you rub
Bill's body and limbs while we were pumping the air into him, but I knew
you would get in the way, and be more of a bother than a help. You must
learn to be calm in any accident; excitement doesn't pay. Keep steadily
and slowly at your pumping, for you might have to do it for four hours
before the patient comes to." He taught us just how to swing the arms and
squeeze the ribs to best advantage, and how to hold the tongue without
getting in the way of the arms as they were pumped back and forth.
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