August 13, 2024
In the shadow of death, where the sick outnumbered the swords, a beacon of hope emerged: Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), whose hands, armed with soap and compassion, fought a different kind of war in the Crimean battlefields. Nightingale led the nurses caring for thousands of soldiers during the Crimean War and helped save the British army from medical disaster. Conditions at the military hospital at the port in Scutari (modern-day Üsküdar in Istanbul) were so appalling that the death rate was up to 50 percent – higher than the battlefront! When this report reached England, Florence was asked to take a team of nurses to see if they could help.
In November 1855, a team of nurses, under Florence’s direction, began scrubbing and cleaning. The following month, a shipload of clean linen, bedclothes, bandages, scrubbing brushes, and a cook arrived, courtesy of Florence’s father. By April 1856, the death rate had fallen to 12 percent and within six months it had lowered still further to 2 percent. This famous British nurse, who changed history through her radical treatment of disease using improved nutrition, hygiene, and sanitation, wrote a book called Notes on Nursing in 1860.