The Hospital Orderly (1)

　　《365个英语小故事》:实用简洁的小故事，都是日常生活小故事，在学习英语的同时了解美国文化，循序渐进，轻松掌握。

　　Jake was tired of his job. Hed been doing it for 10 years, and it wasnt getting any easier. He was a hospital orderly. Thats a vague title that covers many specific dutiessome of which are quite unpleasant. Whenever a patient threw up, for example, it was Jakes responsibility to clean the patients body and face, remove all the soiled clothing and bed linens, put fresh bed linens on the bed, and put clean hospital clothing on the patient. After hundreds of such incidents, Jake still had not gotten used to the odor and sight of fresh vomit. It was disgusting. Every time he cleaned up vomit, he thought to himself that he wasnt getting paid nearly enough.

　　Jake was also responsible for checking a patients blood pressure, taking his pulse and temperature , and doing electrocardiograms to monitor his heart condition. These chores used to be done by nurses or technicians. Now they were done by Jake. He fed patients who couldnt feed themselves. He helped move patients from their beds to gurneys, or from their beds to wheelchairs, and vice versa. Whenever a patient died in his hospital bed, it was Jakes job to zip the body into a plastic bag, put the bag on a gurney, and roll the gurney into the elevator and downstairs into the basement morgue. Sometimes he stayed in the morgue, just thinking.