WHY DO THEY DO IT?

Chronicle (Levin), 21 September 1946, Page 4

WHY DO THEY DO IT?

MEDICAL MISSIONARY WORK Anyone reading the following extracts from letters may well ask, "Why do they do it?" "Don't let anyone take up medi- . cal missionary work if he is under the impression that it is easy. Personally, I flnd it taxes the strength of body, mind and spirit; the physical strain is often more than the body can bear * day in and day out, fourteen hours at a.stretch, except for a break of an hour to an hour and a-half at mid-day; it becomes at times rather wearying. Home at night just in time to hear thp B.B.C. at -9.30 p.m., soup plate on lap as one commences a belated dinner, feeling almost too tired to eat. Then to bed, often not able tosleep because of the mental strain. A crowded surgery and patients clamouring to be seen, a nurse summoning you to a serious case in a ward, a doctor waiting for you In the theatre to do an emergency operation, the X-ray technician calling you to screen a chest, and half a dozen other demands. Someone must wait, but who? In the midst of it all a young woman is brought in on a stretcher. She has been unable to walk and unable to swallow any food since her baby died three months ago. All her relatives are convinced she is desperately ill. A rapid glance convinces one that it is all due to hysteria; the whole hospital has to wait while one's attention is given to this one patient — explanation of the case, impressing one's personality on the relatives as well as patient, enforcing one's willpower and compelling the reluctant young woman to 'rise up and walk' — it is all exhausting and one often feels limp after struggling with such a case."

The writer is (Major) Dr. Bramwell Cook, a New Zealander in eharge of the Salvation Army Hospital in Anand, India. This hospital has increased from 60 to 250 beds during the thirteen years Dr. Cook has spent there, and outpatients now number four hundred daily. The letter containing the following poignant story was accompanied by a snapshot and comes from Capt. V. Williamson, a nurse at the Catherine Booth Hospital, India, whose sister is at present corps officer at Levin. "This little boy was twice in our hospital. On the first occasion about a year ago he came with his mother, when she was admitted for attention to one of her eyes. He was then a charming and robust infant and so delightful in his ways that the nurses became most attached to him. Some time after they returned to their home the father divorced ,the mother because a cataract had developed on the other eye, spoiling her looks. Mother and child were turned out without any means of livelihood. Whether they were forced to beg we did not learn, but when they arrived for a second time it was evident they were the victims of dire want. "As there were no vacant beds in the wards, mother and babe were given a place on one of the wide vrerandahs, where also lay. many other mothers and a few children in a similar condition. We did all we could for them, but the mother developed a fever and rash. The other poor women, fearing smallpox, quickly told her she must go. While I was making arrangements to isolate her she ran away, fearing their taunts. As it was mid-day I kpew she had not the strength to go far under the merciless heat of the sun. I felt certain they would die somewhere on the road so sent someone to bring them back. "When they returned the mother was in a state of exhaustion, and the child was so wqak that it could not even. cry. The little lips just opened and ' shut weakly in-a mute endeavour ' stqt - *^dra^;- soifiqpne's attention to 'Ihe. need of "food. Within three days the mother died an awful death, with not one soul to mourn her passing; one of India's unwanted women whose only -desire was to die and leave a cruel world. "We tended thq little boy even more lovingly after that, and the day on which he actually smiled was a day of great joy for us all, but his poor little undernourished, disease-ridden body was not a match for the rigours of living, even in his clean cot, and on Sunday he left us. Mrs. Colonel (Dr.) Noble and I took his little body to the village burying ground, and she prayer* a prayer from the depths of her big heart over our poor little baby. "This story is repeated many times, but because of the personal interest I had taken in this mother, and child itto has particularly impressed itself on me. I wondersd how many of our women in New Zealand even vaguely conceived the depth of suff ering borne. hy millions of women and children in thisi country." You are familiar no doubt with work in New Zealand. No officer observes a forty-hour week, but toils in many cases long into the night. Why? For the love of God and the sake of humanity. When you are called upon to help the self denial appeal will you give freely and willingly that this splehdid work may be effectively maintained.