Stories from our past aren't much different than stories from our present. This story was told in our Annual Report from 1908. . .
October 31, 1908 :: Blind Baby's Sight Restored
A few months ago a poor woman, poorly clad, came to the Institute with
the most pitiable object ever brought. The baby had very little clothing, which was of the poorest sort and was
in a frightful condition, needing a bath and suffering from hunger, with its
eyes inflamed and swollen shut.
The mother explained that she know the baby’s eyes were sore and in a bad condition; but that since her husband abandoned her, she was unable to provide food for the baby for several days, and she had no comfortable place in which to sleep. . .
She
explained that her husband had abandoned her three weeks previous to that time,
and she thought he had gone to Mexico. She wanted to sign papers of relinquishment and start to Mexico in
search of her husband. The
Superintendent inquired about the condition of the baby’s eyes and insisted
that she should go with a nurse to one of the oculists on the medical staff. When the physician saw the child, he
expressed the opinion that it was too late to save the sight. The mother explained that she know the baby’s
eyes were sore and in a bad condition; but that since her husband abandoned
her, she was unable to provide food for the baby for several days, and she had
no comfortable place in which to sleep.
The baby cried most of the time. The mother had no money to pay to a doctor. The physician gave directions for treatment.The first twenty-four hours required the
change of applications every twenty minutes, for the second twenty-four hours
applications were changed every thirty minutes, all night, as well as during
the day, by the nurses. At the end of
forty-eight hours the physicians expressed hope that the baby would have at
least partial sight restored and at the end of one week expressed the belief
that the baby would be cured. The
persistent treatment which followed resulted in a complete cure and thus the
baby’s eyesight was restored and prevented thereby from going through life in
total blindness and being a burden to the community.
The physicians gave the judgment that
twenty-four hours longer of neglect and the child would have been totally
blind.
-From
the Eleventh Annual Report of the Child Saving Institute
