Transmissibility and curability of cancer / by William Seaman Bainbridge.

  • William Seaman Bainbridge
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Transmissibility and curability of cancer / by William Seaman Bainbridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    cerned. In very many instances, which I might cite, and which are doubtless duplicated in the experi- ence of others, I am plied with the question, “ Is cancer contagious? ” About a year ago I sent a graduate nurse to take care of a cancer patient; she went without demurring. Recently I called her for a similar case, and when told that the patient had cancer she absolutely refused to go, acknowledging that she had become afraid of cancer on account of its “ danger,” and declaring that she would never nurse another cancer patient. A woman upon whom I operated last Novem- ber for advanced recurrent carcinoma of the breast, and again in January for the removal of metas- tatic nodules, recently died. About two years ago, in the same home, her sister died of multiple sarcomata. When some tenants in the house (which is a large apartment house occupied only by the well-to-do) became aware of the nature of the second patient’s malady they became alarmed, demanded that the woman leave, and even threatened during her last days to have her evicted. Still another illustration of this growing fear of “ catching ” cancer came to my notice recently. I was called to see a patient afflicted with cancer who had been admitted to a small hospital in the Borough of Kings. Upon arrival I learned that the nurses, with the exception of the head nurse, had struck in a body, positively refusing to remain in the hospital if they were expected to care for this patient. Impressed by this incident, I asked the head nurse of one of the large metropolitan hospitals what, in her experience, is the feeling of nurses with reference to the care of cancer pa- 3
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