WEBVTT - Bedside Manners 11: Back to Health 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:09.000 The tempers of the citizens of Marblehead, Massachusetts, were about 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:12.079 to boil over. By the seventeen seventies, the town was 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.760 home to five thousand people, making it one of the 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:18.239 largest and richest fishing ports in the colonies, but a 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.599 stark economic divide had appeared between those who owned fishing 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:25.079 boats and those who worked on them. Things only got 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:28.840 worse after a fisherman's wife fell ill after washing his clothes. 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.600 At the time, some thought that she had been poisoned, 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.120 but after the rest of the household started to show 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.760 the same symptoms, folks started to fearfully whisper about the 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:43.200 potential real cause, smallpox, and soon more rumors spread, as 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.720 did the infection. The town officials move quickly, creating an 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.600 inspection committee and limiting the movement to from and around 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.240 the town. Houses where disease appeared were guarded, and those 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:57.240 who got sick were taken away for quarantine, and, in 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.840 a fit of truly paranoid behavior, all dogs in town 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.360 were ordered to be killed for fear that they might 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.679 be responsible for spreading the disease. The first five people 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.679 to succumb to smallpox were buried across the harbor on 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.800 a spit of land known as Marblehead Neck, but soon 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.120 there were too many to be safely and efficiently transported. 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:21.560 Town officials were looking for answers. Decades earlier, a smallpox 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.000 inoculation had been developed. It was proposed that a private 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.800 inoculation hospital could be built on nearby cat Island. There, 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:33.120 people would be inoculated and remain during their infectious post 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.319 inoculation quarantine period. And while this seemed to be a 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.120 promising solution, in reality it was far from perfect. The 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.720 price of treatment was often beyond the reach of many 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.480 in the colonies, including most of these fishermen and their families. 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:51.400 Protection was so close and yet so far. The proposal 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:55.640 for this hospital made the working class majority of Marblehead uneasy. 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.840 For those who couldn't afford services, the chances that they 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:02.360 would accidentally contray the disease from hospital clients and die 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:06.200 seemed very high. Town hall meetings went back and forth. 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.519 The building started, then it stopped, it then started again, 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.480 and disregarding the wishes of a community at large, the 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:16.440 hospital finally opened its doors on October sixteenth of seventeen 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.320 seventy three, and staff welcomed in several hundred patients who 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.360 would all stay there for thirty days. These first patients 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:27.200 were mostly wealthy outsiders and treated their stay as a vacation, 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.519 contrary to their directives to remain inside for their contagious period. 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.000 They could be seen sunning and boating and playing lawn 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.320 games outside. For the humble townsfolk who lived and worked 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.280 the cold waters in rocky coastline of Marblehead, it was 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:43.760 all too much. By the time the third batch of 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:47.720 paying clients was inoculated on December fifteenth, tensions in town 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:50.480 had reached a boiling point, and when that group of 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:55.000 patients was discharged back into town, fury erupted. On January 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.280 twelfth of seventeen seventy four, a hospital boat was set 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:01.120 on fire in the harbor Whek. Later, four folks were 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.600 caught stealing bedclothes from the hospital, potentially an act of 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:08.560 sabotage by intentional contamination of their town, for which the 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.720 hospital would be blamed and ideally shut down. They were 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.920 soon tarred and feathered as punishment, but that didn't do 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.080 much to quell the tensions. Two weeks later, on January 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.560 twenty eighth, another group of men rode out to the 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.360 hospital and set it on fire. The town watched it 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:27.000 burn to the ground. Everything was destroyed, and no sooner 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:31.160 had the smoldering ceased did the perpetrators get caught. But 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:35.320 their supporters were many, and all were deeply enthusiastic, marching 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.280 the few miles down to Salem and demanding their release. 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.600 The jailer was overpowered and the sheriff gave up, letting 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.720 the men go free. Though their enemy was a common one, 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:49.640 the town split apart. Eventually, Marblehead's sickness and rupture would heal, 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.080 and the story would become swept under the tides of history. 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.800 Humans have always been at war with disease, although it's 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.120 only been in the past one hundred years or so 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.280 that we've had a better understanding of how it all works. 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.480 For as long as our bodies have been battlegrounds, there 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.720 have been those on the front lines working to win 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:20.480 the war. I'm Aaron Mankie, and welcome to bedside, manners. 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.000 For as long as we've occupied bodies, we've needed to 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:28.680 heal them. We move through this life hoping to live 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.520 well and free from pain, but obstacles are inevitable. We're 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.159 all going to get some bumps and bruises and maybe 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.960 things that are far worse along the way, and when 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:39.919 that happens, we look to people who know how to 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.520 take care of us. Historically, healing traditions have been passed 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:48.960 from person to person, generation to generation through things like families, communities, 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:53.560 and continents. We have long looked to healers throughout human history. 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:55.760 The healer held a special place in the heart of 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.760 the community. Historically, they used natural materials available to them. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.160 Flora and fauna were used to create decoctions and selves, 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:07.680 tinctures and teas. Spiritual and manual therapies came into play too. 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.200 They were considered good and wise, the bearers of tradition 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.680 and culture, and we know that these positions were often 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.479 held by women. Myths and legends from across the world 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:20.919 often center women at the heart of life and death. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:23.880 To create, to destroy, and in the case of our 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:27.839 story today, to repair. It was a revered and mighty power, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:29.960 and one that came to be feared by those who 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.839 wanted some power of their own. As Western Europe colonized 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.200 the globe, they took aim to vilify traditions that weren't 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.200 their own. They had to find ways to justify their 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:44.600 ruthless and violent expansion. Accounts of these places were frequently 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.880 distorted and diminished in their quest for extermination. These included 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.480 how a place healed its people and the community's reverence 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.640 for those doing this work. Women and what they knew 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:58.839 were seen as threats to the conquering powers, but the 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:03.000 danger for healers didn't remain abroad. Back home, women started 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.159 to be targeted by their own officials, neighbors, and even 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:10.760 family members. The Malleus Maleficarum, a title that literally means 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.320 the Hammer of the Witches, was written in the mid 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:17.360 fourteen hundreds by a German Catholic clergyman named Heinrich Kramer. 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.240 He set out to record everything that he thought he 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:24.760 and other scholars knew about demonology. What he accomplished instead 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.680 was to set off the deadliest witch hunt in the 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:31.320 history of the world. In his book, he suggested that 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.440 a charge of sorcery should be equivalent to the legal 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.880 charge of heresy and to be executed as such. He 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:41.000 laid out different ways to extract confessions from the accused 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.320 using torture. For example, he spoke of the clear and 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.560 present danger of witchcraft and gave the public ways to 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.880 sniff out a witch in their midst. According to his book, 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.599 there were three different classes of witches, those who harm, 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.560 those who can harm and heal, and those who can 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:01.680 only heal. The link was cemented and the results were deadly. 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.680 Scores of people across Europe were accused and executed for 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:10.040 witchcraft during the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. Sources very wildly, 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.520 but scholars today believe between fifty thousand and eighty thousand 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.640 people were killed, and yes, while men did die, they 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:20.160 were less frequently the victims of religious and social scrutiny. 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.119 Even still, healing traditions lived on even under the threat 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.160 of death. The keepers of this knowledge continued to pass 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.280 down their traditions and to work with their community, even 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:35.240 if now their practices were inextricably linked with malevolent, ungodly forces. 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.920 As centuries on European doctrine moved away from the home 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.560 and degree granting physicians colleges were created. Healing became less 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.200 about traditional knowledge and more about leveraging wealth and social 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:51.320 connections to gain acceptance into medical schools, which function similarly 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.560 to social clubs. In fact, many of these newly minted 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.640 physicians would go an entire career without so much as 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.720 touching a human body. SEMy physicians went to great lengths 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.600 to distinguish themselves from country doctors and folk healers. They 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:10.520 dismissed traditional healing practices, even if their own, such as leeching, bleeding, 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.320 and treating patients with any number of poisonous compounds, were 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.640 barbaric at best and deadly at worst. Women, of course, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:23.040 were long left out of these opportunities to professionalize alongside men. 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.960 In the early twentieth century, though, a socially sanctioned avenue 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.280 for care appeared for women who could pay for the privilege. 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.319 They could go to nursing school and earn their degrees 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.640 and stripes. Far from holding a place of reverence, though, 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.040 it was thought that women who entered into this field 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:43.680 into the workforce were desperate and impoverished. Nursing was far 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:47.040 from being viewed as an honorable vocation. But that is 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:51.320 until one woman came along and changed the tide of 0:08:51.360 --> 0:09:01.400 public opinion. Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, on 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:05.160 May twelfth of eighteen twenty. She inherited a British family 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:08.800 of wealth and status, as well as their liberal humanitarian 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.240 outlook on the world. Her grandfather was an abolitionist who 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.960 sat in the House of Commons, while her father, William, 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:18.800 had fought for parliament reform and other various social causes. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:22.240 As a child, Florence and her sister Francis received a 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:26.360 fine education. They studied everything from history and literature to 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.520 math and philosophy. At a young age, it was clear 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.120 that Florence possessed a mind that saw the world through 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:36.160 gathering data. She loved charts and graphs, filling notebooks with 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.360 notes and numbers, and collecting informational pamphlets. Through the course 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.480 of her family's European travels, Florence had hope for her future, 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.720 and in February of eighteen thirty seven, she had a vision. 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:50.679 That was when she believed she had received a revelation 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.080 from God. In her telling, Florence was directed to live 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.760 her life in service to others. She began paying visits 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.800 to the sick and the infirm and learned of care work, 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:02.840 but to be a nurse at this moment was seen 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.240 as grunt work, the vocation of women with lower social standing. 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.880 Women of Florence's class and upbringing were bound by ideals 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.679 of domesticity, the grime and grudge of hospital wards were 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:18.280 wholly unsuitable for their delicate constitutions. For many in her 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.680 peer group, they were expected to marry, well, have children, 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.880 and stay home. This was the height of the good life, 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:28.200 or so she was told. Florence, though, didn't want to 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.320 be put in this box. She fought against the conventions 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:35.000 of her station, even turning down a marriage proposal. So 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:38.160 she set out to become a nurse and publicly declared 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.800 her intent to do so. She began to travel, spending 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.240 time with different hospitals, healers, and teachers to learn about 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:49.240 the craft. She journeyed throughout Europe, studying both hospital systems 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.679 and patient care, and as her experience grew, so too 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.720 did her network of professional contacts, establishing a long list 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:00.120 of personal champions as a well bred englishwoman, though the 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:05.080 latter would become indispensable to affecting systematic change. Her parents, though, 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.400 were appalled at her career choice. By eighteen fifty she 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.880 had enrolled in nursing school in Germany. Despite their protests. 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.560 By eighteen fifty three, her father relented. He would allow 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.160 Florence to do as she wished, and even afforded her 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.720 an allowance to do it. His blessing and financial commitment 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:23.839 to Florence came at a pivotal moment. 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:24.600 You see. 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:28.280 In eighteen fifty three, the Crimean War began. After months 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:31.640 of escalating tension, Russia and the Ottoman Empire went to 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:35.040 war and soon brought their allies into the fray. Back 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.360 in England, the day to day realities of the war 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.920 were broadcast in a new novel way. An underwater cable 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:43.800 from Crimea to England allowed news to reach in the 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:45.840 span of a few hours. It was one of the 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:50.440 first wars to be documented extensively by journalists. The British 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.319 general public saw what was happening. The death toll was 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.080 high and the barracks were filthy. The troop's care was 0:11:56.120 --> 0:12:00.280 being mismanaged, as evidenced by ever climbing mortality rates. In 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.920 eighteen fifty four, Florence received another message. This time it 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:06.480 wasn't to call for God, but a letter from England's 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.720 Secretary of War asking her to assemble a team of 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.120 nurses and head to the front lines in Turkey. Wounded 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.040 British soldiers were dying in the field hospitals, and they 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:19.120 wanted her help. By mid October, she committed herself to 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:21.720 the project. Within a week, she had assembled a team 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:25.560 of thirty eight nurses and left for the front. On 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.360 November fourth, they arrived at Scutari, the British Army barracks 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.559 in Istanbul. They had been allocated to the British Army 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.040 for the duration of the war and had been converted 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:38.800 into a temporary military hospital. The main British camp was 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.920 across the Black Sea, almost three hundred and fifty miles 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:46.359 away in Crimea. They quickly got to work alongside medical officers, 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.040 assessing the situation and attending to the wounded. The medical 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.719 men originally didn't want the women there and felt undermined 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.000 by their presence, but they also needed the help. What 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.640 Florence and her team saw at the barracks was utter 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:03.840 square piles of sewage on the floor, in claustrophobic wards, 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:08.679 men's weeping, gangerous wounds, filled with maggots, foul smelling, soiled 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:12.760 bed linens and bandages, and rotting food. This moment would 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.520 be approving ground for her. Everything that she had been 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.839 studying for had been leading her to this, so she 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:26.960 turned to face it with grace and ferocity. The changes 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.800 to the barracks were swift. Florence and her team brought 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.200 muscle and money. Soon new life was breathed into the space. 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.720 New windows were installed, floors were refinished, and large bath 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:39.000 tubs were brought in and kept fresh and warm for 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.760 tired men. Fresh linens were always made available, and there 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:46.640 were finally enough beds. But conditions weren't sparkling. They were 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:50.679 far better than before. Some of Florence's handpick nurses left, 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.200 but more continued to arrive. For the soldiers, the kindly 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.080 faces of these women were a welcome sight. There was 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.720 finally enough care to go around. The ounce of Florence 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:03.600 and her team began appearing in newspapers back in England. 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.680 Coverage was effusive and poetic, painting her to be both 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.200 a savior and saint on the front lines. Through these stories, 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.040 the public's opinion about the field of nursing began to shift. 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.679 You can think about Florence as something of an influencer. 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:23.000 She took something decidedly uncool and made it admirable. Nursing 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.960 was no longer seen as simple menial labor. It was 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:29.400 something valorous. She brought respectability to the women who were 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.720 already doing the work, and for wealthy women cloistered at 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.360 home due to society's expectations of them, nursing proved to 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:40.080 be a socially acceptable vehicle for escape. The papers wrote 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.200 about the Lady with the Lamp, a specter that feels 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:46.840 almost mythological in its design. It was reported that Florence 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.280 worked upwards of twenty hours a day, but relieved all 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:52.760 of her nurses at eight p m. She would make 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.320 nightly rounds her oil lamp, moving slowly and steadily through 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.440 the barracks, a welcome sight for all who lingered there. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.320 But even still, men continued to perish. In fact, during 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.720 Florence and her team's first winter at Scutari, over four 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:10.040 thousand soldiers died, with a death toll of about forty 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.680 two percent. Florence insisted that these deaths could be attributed 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.320 to inadequate nutrition and supplies, and pressed for more support 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.920 from the government. As the working conditions at Scutari began 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.760 to improve, Florence was able to take leave and tour 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:27.160 other hospitals treating other wounded men. But while she was 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.360 in Crimea, she fell dangerously ill with a high fever 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.440 When she was well enough to travel again, she returned 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.880 to Scutari, where she became one of the patients attended 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:40.360 to by her own nursing staff. She recovered and returned 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.760 her sick bed to someone else. By March of eighteen 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.720 fifty six, peace had come to the region. She stayed 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.160 for a few more months, returning home to England in 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.920 August of that year. She was welcomed home with open 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:55.480 arms and hailed as a national hero. She had become 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.040 an icon during the time she was away, and the 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.480 British public wanted to celebrate her, but Florence just wanted 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:05.160 to rest. She had contracted brucellosis on the front, its 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:08.480 lingering flew like effects haunting her attempts to return to 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.440 a normal life. Her work, though, wasn't done. Florence had 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:14.960 amassed a huge body of data while she was working 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.720 at Scutari and planned to present it to the Royal 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.920 Commission on the Health of that Army. When she finally 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.640 finished compiling all of her notes, though she realized that 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.760 something had gone terribly wrong. She could now more fully 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.240 understand what had happened at the barracks. The soldiers hadn't 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.480 died due to malnutrition or lack of resources, as she 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:37.800 had originally believed, but from communicable diseases such as typhoid 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.280 and dysentery. She concluded that the huge death tolls under 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.480 her care were a result of poor sanitation and her 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:48.840 own ignorance about hygiene protocols. Yes, they had cleaner surroundings 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.280 than when she arrived, but that hadn't been enough. Florence 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:55.240 knew what she had to do next. She presented her 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.480 findings with shame, with vigor, and with a new solution. 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.800 She began to campaign for public health and worked to 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:06.960 educate hospitals in her orbit about better sanitation practices. Florence 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.760 was determined to write what had gone so wrong. She 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.080 now realized that so much of what had killed these 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:16.199 men could have been prevented, and she was determined to 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:27.080 never let it happen again. Florence looked ahead to life 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:30.080 after the war and determined what she wished to do next. 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.200 She had become a public figure, a national hero, and 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.640 a respected figure in the field of healthcare. Eyes looked 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.040 toward her, and she undoubtedly felt the weight of expectation. 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.800 Florence published her report and, pulling on her established relationships 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.080 within the government helped to open an Army medical college 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:51.920 in eighteen fifty nine, a military hospital in eighteen sixty one, 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:56.040 and a permanent Army Sanitary Commission. In eighteen sixty two, 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.040 a national fund in her name was established for the 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.320 purpose of founding a training school for nurses. This was 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.800 the only recognition of her services that she would publicly accept. 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.720 By eighteen sixty the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:13.280 was established. The first class graduated five years later and 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.399 they haven't stopped since. The school, now part of King's College, London, 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:21.399 is still around to this very day. Although the infections 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:23.600 that she picked up during the war would become chronic, 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.760 she campaigned tirelessly for reform. During the American Civil War, 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.879 she was frequently contacted for advice on how to manage 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:35.159 field hospitals. She worked with India's army on their sanitation problems. 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.040 She went on to train medics in the Franco Prussian 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.160 War and even trained Linda Richards, the first woman who 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.919 would become a certified nurse in the United States. Florence 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.760 Nightingale died at age ninety on August thirteenth of nineteen 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.760 ten in London, and although she was offered a burial 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.120 place in Westminster Abbey. Her final resting place is far 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.400 more humble. She's buried in a churchyard with a headstone 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.080 that simply has her initials and dates of her birth 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:05.159 and death. Her legacy extends beyond her long life, and 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.280 her influence has stood the test of time. The character 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.800 that was created in the popular wartime press cemented Florence 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.760 in the public's imagination. Today, she's remembered most strikingly as 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.719 that lady with the lamp, but the bulk of her career, 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:22.200 which covers some of her most important work, took place 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.920 in the decades after she returned home from war. Florence 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:28.520 is a picture of civility in a moment that was 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:32.000 far from civilized and proved to be an attractive distraction 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:35.240 from the true nature of the army's complete mismanagement of 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.040 the war. And she was also deeply human, far from perfect, 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.639 and partial to beliefs that would be controversial today. We 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:46.840 remember the symbol, the icon that is Florence. The real 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:50.639 changes that Florence brought were fueled by flesh and blood humanity, 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.360 first by addressing the shortcomings of others, and then by 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:58.760 committing the remainder of her life to rectify hers. Florence 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.840 couldn't heal her own chronic illness, nor could she undo 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.760 the choices that were made in Scutari, but she did 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.720 what she could for decades afterward, and the field of 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:17.640 nursing around the globe has never been the same. Care 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.760 work is powerful. It takes a special kind of person 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.600 to dig deep into the trenches of human suffering, and 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:26.880 for those folks we are grateful, but we're not quite 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:29.280 done just yet. If you stick around through this brief 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.359 sponsor break, my teammate Robin Minister, will tell you one 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:37.520 more story about another healer finding their place in the world. 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:44.880 You could say that Mary was a healer by birthright. 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.000 Her mother was a master of folk medicine with those 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:51.480 in Jamaica referred to as a doctress. She'd a practice 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.600 based in hygiene and herbs and a working understanding of 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:58.439 tropical diseases and basic surgery. Before she won her freedom 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.119 and moved to Kingston, she nursed fellow enslaved people on 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:05.760 a nearby sugar plantation. Mary inherited her mother's wisdom and practices, 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:08.600 and she also had spirit. Her father had been in 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:10.800 the Scottish Army, which gave her a life of more 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:14.000 social mobility than she otherwise might have had. He had 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:17.000 traversed the seas, and this wanderlust is what she inherited 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.159 from him. As a teenager, she traveled twice to England 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:23.159 and around the Caribbean. She eventually married and stayed so 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:26.240 for eight years until her husband passed away. She would 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:28.159 go on to live her life as a single woman, 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:31.040 focusing her efforts on designing and pursuing a life she 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:34.479 had only dreamt of as a child. By eighteen fifty, 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:37.479 at the outbreak of a cholera epidemic in Kingston, she 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:40.360 found herself utilizing the healing arts that she had learned 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:43.199 from her mother, and by eighteen fifty two she was 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:45.800 living and working with her brother in Panama and once 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.000 again had a chance to serve the sick as the 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:51.399 country was rocked by a cholera outbreak. She traveled to 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.400 London the following year and stumbled across a newspaper headline 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:57.640 that would change the course of her life. She learned 0:21:57.680 --> 0:21:59.840 about the Crimean War and was termed to travel to 0:21:59.880 --> 0:22:03.200 the front and offer her services. She was dismayed though, 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.119 when her offers were rejected by British authorities and Florence 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:10.040 Nightingale herself. She decided to pay her own way, though 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:12.479 she was told there were no nursing vacancies and no 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.919 need for her services. As to why this happened, well, 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:19.359 it's still debated by scholars today. Some insist that Mary 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:22.800 Suekole wasn't qualified. Others say it was because she didn't 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:26.320 go through the accepted application channels. Others believed it was 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:30.000 outright racism. She was certainly hurt, but she wasn't going 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.760 to be dissuaded. Tapping into her other skill set, hospitality 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:37.080 and mercantilism, she made her way to Scutari, where she 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:40.240 opened a restaurant for wounded and sick men. Here they 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:43.320 would find respite for being transported to the hospital for care. 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.400 For this work, she was herald as a hero, appearing 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:49.879 in newspapers alongside Florence Nightingale, being called the mother of 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:53.600 the Army and Mother Sekul. Even Florence softened to her 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:57.040 appearance on the battlefront, recognizing her contributions to the care 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.120 and morale of the soldiers. When a peace treaty was 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.439 finally signed in March thirtieth eighteen fifty six, the troops 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:05.920 began to funnel out. She would be one of the 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:08.880 last to leave Crimea, staying until the last possible moment 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:11.879 to sol off all parts of her business. This endeavor 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:16.000 was unsuccessful and she returned to London penniless. She didn't 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:19.359 fade into obscurity, though, you see. Her reputation grew and 0:23:19.400 --> 0:23:22.880 her fans amassed. Countless lives were touched by her care, 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:24.879 and it was now time for her to receive some 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:29.200 in kind. In eighteen fifty seven, forty thousand people attended 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:31.520 a four day fundraising gallet to help her get back 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:34.399