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"It is of appalling horror! These poor
fellows suffer with unshrinking
heroism, and die or are cut up without
complaint. We are steeped up to our
necks in blood!"
Florence Nightingale
Sidney Herbert, the secretary of state for war, had a crisis
on his hands. More soldiers were dying from disease than
from enemy action. To make matters worse, the press was
having a field day reporting about it. Florence had
previously written to Herbert to let her go to the Crimea.
Now he had decided to take her up on her offer.
Nightingale and her carefully selected team of 38 nurses
set sail for Scutari.
The horror of Scutari was no fantasy made up by eager
journalists embellishing their stories. It was very real to
Florence and her team. The overcrowding and the
shortness of supplies. The soldiers were dirty and
undernourished. To make matters worse, there was also an
issue with the sewage. Florence quickly realised that the
hospitals in the Crimea were poorly managed.
Working without rest, she aimed to change these
conditions. Nightingale bombarded Sidney Herbert with
letters asking for more supplies and used her own money,
and that generously donated by the British public, to buy
scrubbing brushes, blankets, bedpans and operating
tables. A deep clean of Scutari was now made possible.
If cleanliness is next to godliness then Nightingale was the
Angel that God sent to do his bidding. The wards were
cleansed, effectively managed and the sewage was taken
care off by Dr John Sutherland. The disease rate began to
drop.
The care that the soldiers received went above and
beyond what they had previously experienced. Routinely
checking on the soldiers in the dark of night with her
fanoos, she became known as the "Lady with the Lamp."
Little did she know it at the time but the newspapers back
home were celebrating her efforts. Fame awaited her
when she returned to Britain. Whilst she hated that fame,
she knew that she now had some something more
valuable. Nightingale could use that newfound fame to
help shape health and reform not only for the soldiers but
also the everyday man, woman and child.