| Hospitals Work Around Clock to Relieve Injured |
| By Norton Ka. |
| CHICAGO - Dec. 2, 1958 - Hundreds of doctors, nurses, nuns and medical aides last night worked around the clock in four hospitals, administering drugs, sedatives, blood and blood plasma in the battle to save lives and relieve the agony of 100 children burned or injured in the fire at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic school. |
| The four hospitals are St. Anne's, 4590 W. Thomas st.; Franklin Boulevard Community, 3240 W. Franklin blvd.; Walther Memorial, 1116 N. Kedzie av., and Garfield Park Community, 3821 West Washington blvd. |
| At St. Anne's, Sister Almunda, administrator of the hospital, realized what lay ahead when the first charred body was brought into the emergency room. She immediately put in calls for Dr. James Callahan, chief of staff, and Dr. James E. Segraves, chairman of the hospital's disaster plan. |
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| Her next move was to call in more telephone operators to answer the anguished calls of parents. |
| But even before the summons doctors, nurses, laboratory and X-ray specialists throughout the city were making their way to the hospital to offer their services. |
| Needed badly was whole blood, also plasma plus glucose solution containing what are know as the body's electrolytes. They are minerals, such as potassium, sodium and magnesium, which are lost in bad burns. |
| Early today blood supplies began to run short. |
| Another phase of the disaster plan went into effect. The Chicago Blood Donor Service, Inc., 2056 N. Clark st., was called. So was the Michael Reese Foundation and Mt. Sinai Blood Center. All responded quickly with plasma and whole blood. |
| Despite requests that calls to the hospital be limited, the switchboard continued buzzing. Some calls offered their blood. |
| Most difficult were the calls starting with: “My name is ….. and my boy or girl hasn't been found. I wonder if …”. |
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| The story at St. Anne's is only one. |
| At Franklin Boulevard Community Hospital, the staff had been practicing an emergency disaster plan. |
| An official trial run had been scheduled for Dec. 26. |
| Dr. Patrick A DeMoon, administrator, and Dr. William J. Krulick, chief of staff, last night found that emergency. There was no humor when DeMoon said: |
| “We moved up the date. Last night we saw it.” |
