#abbie sweetwine

[sadiehaleheart]

Very cool to learn about this, and thank you for the article link!

I found a novelist's research article from a few years ago, where he interviewed Lt Abbie Sweetwine's great niece! J.D. Peabody also drew a connection between the 1952 Harrow and Wealdston three-train crash & its lipstick-wielding hero, and C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle, published in 1956.

Susan Pevensie, sole survivor out of her siblings, was left behind with her boys and her lipstick, in train wreckage? With historical context, that particular authorial choice changes from dismissive and sexist to (oops) perhaps an allusion to real-world bravery. This woman and her boys/military doctors still had important work to do. As a much younger reader, I was so MAD that Susan didn't get to join Aslan and friends in Heaven and fight the, uh, devil who I think was a donkey?, because of some stupid lipstick. Turns out that lipstick convinced the NHS that field triage and field documentation, with whatever pen you can find, can save civilian lives!

... Can't believe I'm going to have to critically reread the Narnia finale after 25 years because of Noah Wyle's face.

THE PITT 1.08 • 2:00 P.M.

[247reader]

Day 21 - Abbie Sweetwine

On October 8th, 1952, two passenger trains collided at Harrow and Wealdstone Station, outside of London. Seconds later, a third train struck the derailed cars, in what became Britain’s second deadliest-ever rail disaster.  A call immediately went out for medical aid, and the local ambulances were joined by US Air Force personnel stationed at a nearby RAF base - seven doctors, and Nurse Lt. Abbie Sweetwine.  Chaos reigned. 112 dead were joined by at least 340 wounded, and the trains lay in a tangled mess.  The doctors and aid workers came from disparate sources, and at first there was no overarching organization.  This was a situation for battlefield medicine.  Abbie and her colleagues established an ad hoc triage station.  With nonmedical supplies being understandably low, she used the closest thing to hand - her tube of lipstick - to mark patients who had been treated with an X and those who had received morphine with an M: critical to prevent fatal overdoses. She also comforted patients, distributing morphine and plasma to those in need and tea to the more lightly wounded, earning the nickname of the “Angel of Platform Six.”

Abbie remained in the Air Force until 1969, retiring at the rank of Major.  She moved to Florida to be with her family, and died there in 2009 at the age of 87.  The Harrow and Wealdstone crash is best known for the safety advances it inspired in Britain, but the actions of Abbie, her team, and the other medics on the scene also had a lasting effect on how emergency medicine was organized, from standardized on-site triage to the greater role of the paramedic. 

[beaulesbian]

I decided to finally make a part two of this post, it took me half a year longer than I anticipated, but I rushed to finish it at least for June.

🏳️‍🌈 Happy pride month! 🏳️‍🌈

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley – The best kind of subtle romance I have ever read. Includes mysterious pocket watch, solving bomb threats in Victorian London, a lady scientist, changing of future based on occurring events, an adorable clockwork octopus, and so much more! Did I mention the best, most beautiful romance I didn’t even expect to get?? Read it! (mlm main characters)

All out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages by multiple authors, edited by Saundra Mitchell – This book was so refreshing to read!!! Retellings of fairy tales but queer and poc and mostly happy. I enjoyed each of the short story so so much, I don’t have words to say how much I loved this book, just, can we please have more stories like that? Thank you.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman – Ever wanted a book with a main character boy and girl who won’t end up together by the end of the book? Then this is a book for you. Frances and Aled do not only become best friends who won’t end up together, but there’s even more diverse characters than these two main ones. This book even has an ace (demi) sexual representation, which I was very excited about, and the main character is biracial bisexual girl. There is lot of fandom talk and a radio show drama (kind of similar to Welcome to Night Vale). But also talks about other important topics like deciding that college might not be for everyone despite them being a great student in high school.

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee – It’s a cute and sweet superhero themed futuristic story, first book of a trilogy I think. The main character is Vietnamese American bisexual girl, Jessika Tran, whose parents are both superheroes, but she doesn’t have any powers. She starts working for a company she later discovers belongs to town’s villains, but with time she learns that not everything about superheroes and villains is perfectly black and white. Also she’s working there with her crush, so that’s a bonus. It’s a really great book, there’s wlw romance and lot of diversity, action and silly scenes. The history behind the people’s superpowers and worldbuilding was really interesting too. The sequel is also already out, featuring a poc trans boy as the main character, who is part of Jessika‘s friend squad.

The Gentleman‘s guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee – A book everyone here should read!! A historical roadtrip with lot of angst, fluff and mutual pining of two of the main characters. It takes place in 18th century Europe. Monty is kind of an asshole, some moments you will hate him then you will love him, but as the journey progresses so does he. He travels with his sister, Felicity, and his best friend (and crush!) Percy, to visit few cities in Europe before he has to start work in his fathers company. This book addressed lot of issues, like white privilege and racism in that time period, sexism and ableism. But it’s also an adventurous book that’s funny and charming, and makes you feel really happy one moment and sad the next. There are also pirates!

Dreadnought by April Daniels – This is a first book of a duology about a lesbian trans girl Danny who receives superpowers after witnessing death of the superhero Dreadnought, which means she now has to become the new Dreadnought. But with the powers also becames real the ideal vision of her body, that she always wanted. She is very happy about it, but it also means she has to face her family and best friend and explain why she looks different. On top of that she has to help the other superheroes with stopping the new threat to the city, the villain who killed previous Dreadnought. Trigger warnings for transphobia, but it’s really worth to read.

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller – I’ve seen mixed reviews of this book but personally I loved it. It’s a fantasy YA with lgbt protagonist, that I don’t have enough of. Sal is a genderfluid, also bi? pan? thief who enters a competition to become one of Queen’s Assassins. Basically the last one standing (or rather living) takes the place. Sal knows how to fight and survive but also needs to learn other things to win this position. Like taking classes of writing/reading which teaches him a lady of court they previously stole something from, whom Sal quickly starts to like more than they should, with the competition at play. For me it was a really great book to read and I can’t wait to read the sequel!

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli – I had to read this one quickly before Leah on the offbeat came out, and it was a joy to read this one too! Again so much representation, I love Becky’s books and the Simon vs world. This story is about Molly who has had a lot of crushes but never actually dated anyone. She’s jewish, has anxiety, is fat, loves her family, is very creative, and has another crush on a guy who is her coworker. There’s so much cuteness in this book, I was smiling and crying the whole time reading it. More for representation: her sister is gay, she has two moms, a new Korean-American pansexual friend (who her sister totally likes) and more. I need to meantion trigger warnings for fatphobia, because of part there with her relative, it made me cry so much, it was very reletable and I hated it but there was very good closure for it in the end, which I’m happy about. Anyway read this book, overall it’s a cute and happy book with lots of fluff!

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli – I loved Leah from the Simon vs book, so I was really happy we got more focus on her. She’s fat and funny, unapologetic about who she is, in her words: “basically your resident fat Slytherin Rory Gilmore”. There was mentions she likes boys as well as girls. Because of a tour for her college she goes with Abby to see where she will live the next few years and stuff happens. And then there’s also their high school prom, which she thought she was ready for, but maybe she’s not ready for at all. I’m not even going to write more, it’s an amazing book, I cried so many times.

Timekeeper by Tara Sim – This story takes place in a Victorian era Britain where clock towers are needed for time to flow correctly. Therefore there is lot of mechanics who repair said clock towers, because if the clock stops, the town around it stops in time as well. The main character Danny is one of those mechanics in London, but his father is trapped in a town that Stopped and Danny needs to find a way to save him. But after someone tries to sabotage a clock tower in a small city, Danny is assigned in that town to fix it, and he eventually finds out that the myths he heard – that in clock towers could sometimes be seen beings, spirits of the towers – might actually be true. This book was so nice to read, there was the atmosphere of the Victorian era, mystery, cute mlm romance and awesome female characters.

I’ll give you the sun by Jandy Nelson – I cried a lot reading this book. At first it actually took me few months to read past first two chapters, because the writing style was so different from what I was used to, but after that I got absorbed in it very quickly. It’s a story about two siblings, Noah and Jude Sweetwine, who both go through some difficult times, with family, school and personal stuff, it’s about making mistakes and fixing mistakes. It’s about love, art, sibling struggles and growing up.

Other books that I read and loved and definitely recommend:

Of Fire and Stars - Audrey Coulthurst (f/f fantasy romance)

We are the Ants –  Shaun David Hutchinson (m/m)

In Other Lands -  Sarah Rees Brennan (bi mc, m/m)

Release – Patrick Ness (m/m)

Our dark duet – V.E. Schwab (sequel of duology, agender character, not much romance at all in this duology, it‘s one of my favourites)

A Conjuring of Light – V.E. Schwab (a beautiful fantasy, last book of trilogy, happy ending for m/m pairing whose each story is important throughout the whole series. Again, one of my favourite series)

Magnus Chase and the Ship of Dead - Rick Riordan (I don‘t want to spoil here but it‘s good, genderfluid representation since book two, more in this final book)

Ice crypt - Tiana Warner (sequel of the Ice Massacre, wlw romance between mermaid and human girl, who knew each other since childhood, there is third final book, Ice Kingdom, already out, but I still haven‘t read it..)

Happy reading!

(tagging few people who i think might enjoy it ♥♥: @eradne, @poefinn, @twomillionfreckles, @eliotcoldwater, @queen-max, @tsukiyam-a)

[askingyouthis]

which fictional characters?

omg so many. i love noah & jude sweetwine (from ill give you the sun by jandy nelson) and the whole cast of brooklyn 99 and eleanor shellstrop (from the good place) and percy jackson and abby suso (from simon vs) and literally any boy from any ya contemporary novel djdkdkdk i could keep going but this is already SO MANY IM SORRY

[belleandkurtbastian]

I didn’t intentionally read this article (from 2012) for Black History Month, but here we are.

Remember: triage and paramedics in the NHS are two things that largely came about because of an African-American USAF nursing lieutenant in the 1950s. Lt Abbie Sweetwine, “The Angel of Platform 6″

[hugintheraven]

It wasn't just in the US that black people started the EMT services. In Britain, the Harrow and Wealdston train crash in 1952 was the worst peacetime rail disaster in UK history(112 dead, 340 wounded). A United States Air Force medical unit was among the first responders, and while most ambulances at the time(including this incident) just picked up anyone injured and rushed them to the hospital, the USAF people recognized that things were so bad this should be handled like battlefield medicine, treating and triaging on-site. 7 doctors and, crucially, 1 nurse, Abbie Sweetwine made up the USAF medical unit.

While ambulances were rushing off with "walking wounded" who had made it out of the accident first, the more seriously injured were still being dragged from the wreckage. The doctors who had rushed over with whatever they happened to grab treated those on-site. Meanwhile, Lt. Sweetwine handled triage and recorded what treatments had been performed by writing on the patients with lipstick and directed the returning ambulances which patients to take back to hospitals next. This was crucial for saving lives, and when the various UK organizations were figuring out how to make sure this sort of disaster didn't happen again, the role of ambulances as actual medical providers rather than as a fancy taxi service was one of the big realizations. It wasn't a wholly new concept, but news articles and pictures showing doctors on-site, crucially with Abbie Sweetwine following up with patients and covering basic care, gave a solid basis that the NHS could model it's Paramedic system after.

And Abbie Sweetwine was black. This was almost unheard of for the time, a black woman serving with the USAF, and the impact of a black woman being lauded for heroism throughout the UK on your average Joes cannot be overstated. She basically just did her job, continued doing it for the next few decades, and retired to her home state of Florida with some unusual medals on her wall, but she also changed a country and that's not something most people can say.

(source, please click through for a better writer than me tackling this)

THE PITT 1.08 • 2:00 P.M.