family.
THE LIGGETT FAMILY HISTORY
Uncle Bill's Appendectomy
In April of 1904, one morning I felt a dull pain in right side. The next morning I was not able to go to work and Dr. Kemp was called. He pronounced it appendicitis and would not allow me to take anything by my mouth. In a few days he allowed me a teaspoonful of water every hour.
This was soon sufficient for my wants. My mother gave me injections of oatmeal gruel, as she said I would absorb some nourishment that way. The doctor thought I would come around without an operation and on Tuesday of the following week he was called to the File Hills Reserve. When he got there he found he had to treat a lot of scurvy and did not get back until the following Friday. He then decided to operate and did so the following day.
They took the kitchen table upstairs for an operating table. He was assisted by his young partner, Dr. Harvey, a trained nurse and another woman. I do not know if she was a nurse or not.
They put drainage tubes in the wound and dressed it every day for a while. Sometimes chunks of dark grey matter would come away. They called these chunks adhesions. I think the nurse stayed about two weeks. It was seven weeks from from I first went to bed till I was allowed up.
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