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Show Exhaustion A Cause of Pneumonia Bv DR. JAMES W. BARTON (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) A CURRENT movie shows an elderly physician and his assistant trying to. find why every patient with pneu-monia pneu-monia does not I ftn.v,c recover instead TODAYS of only 98 per EALTH Why should COLUMN two per cent L ' die? As I followed the movie I had in mind the great number num-ber of cases of pneumonia that accompanied and followed fol-lowed the influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919, when physicians physi-cians felt that a recovery of 90 per cent in pneumonia was satisfactory. That the death rate should be reduced re-duced to about 2 per cent by the use of new drugs, sulpha-nilimide sulpha-nilimide and sul-phapyridine, sul-phapyridine, is a wonderful accomplishment, accom-plishment, yet, as the picture teaches, why shouldn't 'all cases recover? The fact that pneumonia often followed the flu is not because of the flu in itself, but because be-cause the flu so exhausts ex-hausts the patient, Dr. Barton particularly ,his heart, that when another infection, a serious infection infec-tion like pneumonia, occurs, the patient pa-tient may not have enough strength to fight it. We have all known of cases where the husband had pneumonia and the wife not only waited on him practically prac-tically day and night but had to carry also the worry about him in her heart. The husband recovers but with the danger past the wife is stricken with pneumonia and, being worn out with her nursing and anxiety, anxi-ety, fails to survive. The same may occur when the wife is stricken first and the husband, worn and worried, wor-ried, develops pneumonia and passes away. The loss of rest, and not eating enough food, while nursing nurs-ing or worrying about the patient, is a big factor in lowering the physical strength and the resistance to the disease. Exposed to Attack. The point is that it is the tiredness and weakness of the body that enables en-ables pneumonia organisms already in the system, or in the air of the sickroom or home, to successfully attack the body and the symptoms develop. The thought for all of us, then, that when a cold hangs on, when we are attacked by flu, when we've been working hard and are very tired, we are in just the right condition condi-tion for pneumonia organisms to get their hold. The prevention of pneumonia, pneu-monia, then, is proper rest and plenty of nourishing foods. Blood Transfusions Now Safe Routine "Blood transfusion should no longer long-er be regarded as a desperate emergency emer-gency measure, but as a safe routine rou-tine procedure supplementing other forms of treatment for numerous diseases." I am quoting Drs. Noah Fabricant and Leo M. Zimmerman, Chicago, in Hygeia: "Modern knowledge of typing blood and new methods for preserv- ing and transferring blood have greatly decreased the dangers that once attended blood transfusion. There are four group types known and it is possible to determine by simple and reliable tests into which classification a person's blood falls." What is known as the Blood Transfusion Betterment association was formed in 1929. Persons in every walk of life apply to the hospital hos-pital or clinic to have their blood . tested and then typed. They leave . their address and telephone number and when their type of blood is needed need-ed they report immediately. To qualify a donor must be registered with the department of health, be of normal weight (at least 150 pounds), have a normal blood pressure, pres-sure, and show a negative Wasser-mann Wasser-mann test. The latest development is blood "banks" by which blood is drawn from the donors and kept in a refrigerator re-frigerator until it is needed. By this means "precious hours are not lost while prospective donors journey over long city distances and the willing donor is no longer rejected because his blood is not the right type." These blood banks with their supply sup-ply of "ready" blood of each type mean much to the physician. |