A healer is a person who treats the sick and wounded people of their district.
History[]
Since almost nobody could afford doctors in the districts, the apothecaries were the healers. One notable healer of District 12 was Mrs. Everdeen, who healed many of the injured in the district,[1] such as coal miners suffering from accidents,[2] and Gale Hawthorne after he was brutally whipped by Romulus Thread.[3]
Primrose Everdeen also took an interest in healing after assisting her mother countless times.[2] She was young, but she took after her healer mother and naturally had a great ability to heal people. After the bombing of District 12, when Gale collected more than eight hundred people and escaped out the forest, Prim and her mother set up a medical area and healed injured people who survived out of the fire. They had very few things to treat from, but they tried their best by gathering whatever they could from the forest.[4]
After Gale's whipping, when Mrs. Everdeen and Prim were healing him, Mrs. Everdeen remarked that it was lucky that they had snow for a snow coat. When Katniss Everdeen asked what she did in the summer, Mrs. Everdeen put on a weary face and replied that she "tried to keep the flies away."[5]
Description[]
It is imperative that a healer is calm and willing to do whatever it takes to keep a patient alive.[6] Healers like Mrs. Everdeen use numerous plants and natural substances as medicines while helping a patient. Some of these plants are found in the wild, such as the woods and the Meadow.[1] On occasion, a healer will use fever pills[6] and sleep syrup,[7] or even morphling.[3]
Since the districts do not have official hospitals or doctors, a healer is their main source of medical care and is equivalent to a doctor.[1] District 8 had a hospital in the Second Rebellion,[8] but it is unknown whether there were actual doctors or healers there.