Page 84 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text
P. 84
Idling in Pelcovizna
doctors are scarce, was to put a wet rag over the wound, and keep on
working. Within a few days the arm began to swell and show reddish
streaks.
The country people suggested poultices, but after a couple of
more days we had to rush her to a hospital on the Sabbath. An
operation had to be performed without anesthetic, because she was
in a weakened state. My father, my sisters, and I were outside on the
lawn of the hospital. The operation was on the upper story, but the
cries of my mother could be heard a block away. They held her down
and the doctor made five incisions along the length of her arm to
drain the poison, and then bandaged the arm. We did not have
enough money to pay for hospitalization, so we carried her under her
arms and drove her home two hours after the operation.
As I write this now I feel the agony that I felt then, sitting next to
her on the wagon: every time it shook, she bit her lip and squeezed
my arm. For six months the wounds had to be dressed every second
day, draining the pus. Since we were poor, the doctor showed me
how to do that dressing at home. It was torture for her—and for me,
also, as the gauze had to be pushed into the incisions, all five of
them. Mother would put her head on my shoulder or on my left arm,
and when that gauze went in she dug into my flesh with the few teeth
she had left, tears and sweat running down her face. When the thing
healed, her fingers remained bent for a long time.
I was about fifteen or sixteen years old when that happened.
When anyone in the family had physical trouble I had to be the home
doctor or go with them to the clinic. When my sister Hannah had to
have her tonsils cut out, I went with her to the sort of nurse or
doctor who did it. When I was about twelve years old in cheder, they
ran up calling me home: Hannah was eating fish and a bone had
stuck. I ran home like a horse over the ditches and highway. I sat her
up in a chair, opened her mouth, located the bone, then put my two
fingers down her throat while she was choking and pulled the bone
out. It is too bad that I never had a fundamental education. I would
have studied medicine, as I always respected doctors and like to read
medical books.
Winter nights in the north are very long, and darkness falls early.
When six boys and girls sit at home, crowded around a table because
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