Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1895 — Electrical Treatment for Sunstroke. [ARTICLE]

Electrical Treatment for Sunstroke.

An interesting electrical plant has been installed in tho sunstroke wurd of a New York hospital. Tho old treatment for sunstroke included warming drinks and hot applications to the body, with a view of drawing the heat from tho head, as well as iced applications to the head. Now the patient is immersod in very cold water.and kept there until the abnormal temperature abates. The new apparatus for transferring tho patient to the bath is worked entirely by electricity. A hammock, suspended by chains, is lowered and roceivos tho patient, who is gently slid in from the stretchor, A turn of tho motor wheel lifts him, and he is carried smoothly, along to a bath filled with iced water. Into this lie is lowered by the machinery until only his face remains above water. Ice is packed around his head and he is left until his temperature has lowered to the desired point. Tho machinery then quietly lifts him and transfers him to a pallet at the side of the room. This method of handling not only causes loss jarring to the patient than any other, but it saves the doctors and nurses much exhaustive work, particularly in tho case of heavy patients. It is interesting to note, us showing that tho medical profession is alive to tho mechanical as well as tho therapeutic advantages of electricity, that tills apparatus was designed by I)r. Lewis A. Stimson, the attending surgeon of tho hospital,