BYGONES has helped reunite two former trainee nurses at Queen’s Park Hospital, Blackburn, nearly six decades on.

After we shared the recollections of Harvey Greenhalgh, of his four years’ learning the skills of sharpening needles, scrubbing bedpans and patient care in the late fifties – as well as his numerous pranks – it was spotted by one of his old colleagues.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Ella DeMaine, a retired SRN from Blackburn, read our extracts from his book Needle in the Heart – The House of Mad Eccentrics and got in touch.

Now, more than half a century later, the two have met and shared memories after they realised Ella’s brother John lives only a few miles away from Harvey in southern California, where he emigrated in the sixties and furthered his nursing career.

Said Harvey: “It was your lovely article about my book that got cobwebs blown aside and Blackburn wheels turning again.

“Ella was a year senior to me at Queen’s Park and so our paths crossed frequently during our student nurse training.

“She was intrigued enough to feel that although 50-odd years had gone by, we could chat again about ‘old times’.

“Ella helped me recall many other nursing staff colleagues, and situations both humourous and exciting. I would do it all over again.”

Harvey, whose family lived in Queen’s Road, became a cadet nurse in 1954, aged 17, after attending a Audley Secondary School.

The hospital, once Blackburn’s workhouse, was then a teaching institution as well as a medical facility and known as The Fortress.

He came across sisters who ran their wards like sergeant majors, the authoritarian matron in her dark green and a number of eccentric doctors, such as the GP who was so obsessed with cleanliness he was known as Dr Dettol.

In those days it was the same as any other infirmary, there was no attitude of use it once, then throw it away. Everything had to be washed, scrubbed, irrigated, sharpened and sterilised.

But in the midst of hard work, Harvey got up to pranks too, such as the day he and a fellow student nurse hid all the pots and pans from the kitchen in the gardener’s greenhouse.

After four years at Queen’s Park and gaining his SRN, Harvey was called up for national service, before emigrating to California.

Over the years he obtained his RN, BA, MA and PhD, going from staff nurse, to head nurse, administrative nursing supervisor and assistant director of nurses.

He said: “What a great adventure it was. I would not hesitate to do it all over again.”

  • Needle In The Heart — The House Of Mad Eccentrics, published by Xulon Press (ISBN 978-1498419130), is distributed by Ingram/SpringHarbor.