View report page

79
Committee, as it indicates the difficulty of tracing the true
origin of infection in cases of Puerperal Pyrexia in a
voluntary hospital.
The case, Mrs. C., was admitted with ruptured
membranes at 12.30 a.m. on January 26th to Ward IV.
(which at that time contained four empty beds), and
delivered of a normal child at 1.10 p.m. on the same day,
a Doctor and a Nurse (1) being in attendance. The
temperature and pulse rate remained normal on the 20th,
27th and 28th January, but on the evening of Friday, 29th
January, the temperature rose to 100 degrees. The Doctor
was informed by telephone, and on the following day the
patient, whose temperature was now 104 degrees, was
removed by the Matron from Ward IV. on January 30th
for isolation in a single-bed ward. The temperature remained
constant on Sunday, 31st January, and I was for
the first time informed at 1.30 p.m., three days after the
rise of temperature, by the Doctor in attendance that the
case was, in ltis opinion, one of Puerperal Fever. I immediately
hud the case removed to Queen Charlotte's Hospital
(Isolation Block), and the Maternity Hospital placed in
isolation and closed to admission of further patients.
On enquiring into this case I found that five other
patients, of the sixteen in the Hospital, had become direct
contacts in the same ward as the infected case. One
Nurse (2), who had recently had influenza, complained of
sore throat, and swabs were taken of her and of the whole
of the staff. Suspected members of the staff were isolated
and suspended from duty pending investigation.
On the following day, 2nd February, four of the five
contact patients showed rising temperatures. In the
evening swabs were taken for haemolytic streptococci, and
eventually all these proved positive. On 3rd February,
pending the result of the bacteriological examinations,
these four patients continued under observation and
isolation with a view to their transfer to Queen Charlotte's
Isolation Hospital. That evening I was called in to see
one of the nurses (Nurse 3) who had an acute streptococcal
throat, and I removed this patient to the Bromley
Isolation Hospital. On 4th February the temperature of
the patients not showing signs of abatement,