The year 1891 seemed a very mixed year with one epidemic after another
occurring in the borough putting great pressure on the staff at Badsley Moor Lane
Hospital. When another influenza epidemic loomed over the town, Rev. Conon Tebbutt made
his views known in “The Rotherham Advertiser.” In the June 13th edition he
complained, “Nurses were however not to be had for love or money amongst the wealthy,
and the working classes had often had to do the best they could without them when
relatives and neighbours had all been attacked by the Influenza". The influenza
epidemic seemed to improve as the excitement of a Royal visit echoed around Rotherham when
the Prince and Princess of Wales officially opened Clifton Park, patients no matter how
ill they were, did their best to celebrate on this great occasion.
By the winter of 1891 Rotherham had a serious typhoid fever epidemic and as the dark, cold, winter nights of November drew in, a total of 288 cases had occurred all over Rotherham, but mainly in Thrybergh. Every hospital did their best to care for the ill but this epidemic put great strain on the small Badsley Moor Lane Hospital. All the cases in Rotherham were reported to the new Medical Officer of health, Dr. Robinson, who had held his last post as a surgeon at Swansea General Hospital before he had taken the new post at £100 per annum on the resignation of Dr. Hardwick in June of that year. Typhoid fever was a serious illness and made patients very ill, however many people were so ill that they would not have made it to a hospital for treatment. The disease itself caused great discomfort with pains in the abdomen either because of constipation or diarrhoea, painful limbs and nose bleeds were also common symptoms. As the fever progressed, insomnia and loss of weight were frequent symptoms.
© Neil and Janet Croft 2005