From 1942 - 1964 I was in medical practice in the Himalayas of North India, ten miles from the Western border of Nepal, at a height of 7,000 feet. We were not really a medical mission but an evangelistic one. I had to perform these operations because without my aid many of these people would have died or been subjected to great pain and suffering. Therefore, I went forward trusting the Lord and began them all with prayer.
Many of our patients came to us having been very impoverished by paying large sums of money to the temple and the priests of Hinduism or by giving sacrifices to the idols they worshipped. After going through all their usual religious observances they sometimes came to us as a last resort. All our medical work was carried out free of charge for over twenty years. The whole population moved down to the plains for the winter as their cattle would die from the extreme cold up in the mountain. I was there for 6 months of the year.
The only other surgeons were 3 days journey away. The operation room I had to build was provided as a memorial to the wife of a British settler, Mr Abbot, who stood behind our work for some years before he passed to the Lord. It was very simple, with whitewashed walls and a cement floor. The lighting was provided by a generator which we had the use of for 2 hours at night as the mechanic was occupied during the day. There was a single electric light bulb above the simple operating table which was made as a dining table locally. At the door we had reed screens to keep our the flies and other insects. Patients had to be carried there on planks with the help of other patients or their relatives. We were seeing up to 80 or 90 out patients a day and operating once a week except for emergencies who were attended to at once while the other patients had to wait.
Ovarian Cyst
A woman had walked ten miles to reach us. She had been to another doctor and had a bowl full of fluid removed from her abdomen the year before. I enlisted the help of three W.E.C. missionary nurses who were studying the language in my area. The operation took five hours and was carried out under chloroform given by rag and bottle by my wife. The dermoid cyst weighed 20 kg. She gave an offering of a day's wage, as a sign of her gratitude to God, the Lord Jesus who had healed her. She sent greetings for three years by those who came from her village to our hospital and said that she was in good health and carrying out her normal work.
Abdominal Pregnancy
This 19 year old woman had walked for two days to reach us and was in a very toxic state. She was pregnant and had gone into labour three weeks earlier. The local midwives had failed to deliver her and the baby had died. She presented with a fever of 105 and so I treated her with penicillin injections and prepared her for operation. The baby's hair was coming through the abdomen which was full of amniotic fluid and the foetus was delivered with the placenta which was bloodless. She recovered fully and thanked the Lord Jesus of whom she had heard during her time with us.
Lacerated throat
Very few patients came to us at night because they all feared evil spirits and the wild animals - bear, leopard and tiger but one night by a couple brought a woman they said had cut her throat by falling on a jagged rock. When we took the scarf away we found several wounds. She was quite unable to speak until the wound across the larynx had been sewn up. It seemed the injury was caused by the rage of either her husband or lover, both of whom came with her to us for help. The woman made a good recovery.
Appendicitis
One of the first operations was on a burly Anglo-Burmese retired Indian government official. He was an alcoholic and I approached the operation and the giving of the anaesthetic with some hesitation. He had had abdominal pain for a number of days without reporting his need and it was only when he was in extreme pain that he sought our help. He was nursed after the operation in our own home as we had no accommodation for nursing at the site of the operating room. The intestines were extremely inflamed and the appendix had sloughed off. He was nursed by one of our W.E.C. nurses and made a good recovery and gave his heart to the Lord.
Fractures
These were frequently caused by people climbing trees to collect fodder for their cattle There were no X - rays. One man, who was part of a wood cutting team, had had one of the trees fall across his thigh and break his femur at the junction of the upper and middle thirds. One who worked with us reminded me that there were some iron bars which he had removed from the side of the old outhouse. If they were given to the blacksmith in the village 3 miles away, he would be able to make a splint out of them similar to the picture I had shown him. The blacksmith produced a very creditable specimen of a Thomas's splint, complete with the leather wrapped round the ring, and this I applied. After treating him in extension with adhesive plaster and an overhead beam we used it as a walking calliper. He re-appeared one day at the hospital and marched proudly up in front of the other patients to show how well his thigh had healed. He gave us back the splint and it was used for many other patients.
Tiger Maul
A woman had been mauled by a tiger in her little village house ten miles from us as she lay sleeping with the door open in the upper room. Her husband and relatives sleeping in the courtyard screamed and the tiger made off. The woman had been scalped and had to be treated with penicillin before the scalp was washed and sutured. She made a wonderful recovery in spite of all this. This is more fully described by my wife in her book published by Avon Books entitled "The India we knew".
When there was no specialist
I specialised in cataract operations as I had been instructed by Sir Henry Holland on the North West frontier of India and also at St. Thomas's hospital where I had been an senior ophthalmic house surgeon but had never done any operations in England. The results were not brilliant but enabled many to receive useful sight.
Sometimes children were presented to us with hare lips and although we had no means of intubation nor suitable anaesthesia I did attempt to repair four or five of these with the wonderful co-operation of my wife in giving the chloroform. These were, as you can imagine, not very successful but I was at one stage encouraged by a young man being brought to me in his teens to show that one of these hare lip operations had been remarkably successful and he was able to feed normally.
Answered Prayer
We relied on prayer and faith for the Lord to undertake in our lack of skill, equipment and understanding. In so many ways again and again we were not disappointed. I do not remember an anaesthetic causing a death in spite of all the operations being carried out by chloroform. We agreed the things to be desired and the Lord graciously answered not only for ourselves but also for the ministry, medicine etc. We thanked God for his faithfulness as we made no appeals for money.
Many of our patients came to us having been very impoverished by paying large sums of money to the temple and the priests of Hinduism or by giving sacrifices to the idols they worshipped. After going through all their usual religious observances they sometimes came to us as a last resort. All our medical work was carried out free of charge for over twenty years. The whole population moved down to the plains for the winter as their cattle would die from the extreme cold up in the mountain. I was there for 6 months of the year.
The only other surgeons were 3 days journey away. The operation room I had to build was provided as a memorial to the wife of a British settler, Mr Abbot, who stood behind our work for some years before he passed to the Lord. It was very simple, with whitewashed walls and a cement floor. The lighting was provided by a generator which we had the use of for 2 hours at night as the mechanic was occupied during the day. There was a single electric light bulb above the simple operating table which was made as a dining table locally. At the door we had reed screens to keep our the flies and other insects. Patients had to be carried there on planks with the help of other patients or their relatives. We were seeing up to 80 or 90 out patients a day and operating once a week except for emergencies who were attended to at once while the other patients had to wait.
Ovarian Cyst
A woman had walked ten miles to reach us. She had been to another doctor and had a bowl full of fluid removed from her abdomen the year before. I enlisted the help of three W.E.C. missionary nurses who were studying the language in my area. The operation took five hours and was carried out under chloroform given by rag and bottle by my wife. The dermoid cyst weighed 20 kg. She gave an offering of a day's wage, as a sign of her gratitude to God, the Lord Jesus who had healed her. She sent greetings for three years by those who came from her village to our hospital and said that she was in good health and carrying out her normal work.
Abdominal Pregnancy
This 19 year old woman had walked for two days to reach us and was in a very toxic state. She was pregnant and had gone into labour three weeks earlier. The local midwives had failed to deliver her and the baby had died. She presented with a fever of 105 and so I treated her with penicillin injections and prepared her for operation. The baby's hair was coming through the abdomen which was full of amniotic fluid and the foetus was delivered with the placenta which was bloodless. She recovered fully and thanked the Lord Jesus of whom she had heard during her time with us.
Lacerated throat
Very few patients came to us at night because they all feared evil spirits and the wild animals - bear, leopard and tiger but one night by a couple brought a woman they said had cut her throat by falling on a jagged rock. When we took the scarf away we found several wounds. She was quite unable to speak until the wound across the larynx had been sewn up. It seemed the injury was caused by the rage of either her husband or lover, both of whom came with her to us for help. The woman made a good recovery.
Appendicitis
One of the first operations was on a burly Anglo-Burmese retired Indian government official. He was an alcoholic and I approached the operation and the giving of the anaesthetic with some hesitation. He had had abdominal pain for a number of days without reporting his need and it was only when he was in extreme pain that he sought our help. He was nursed after the operation in our own home as we had no accommodation for nursing at the site of the operating room. The intestines were extremely inflamed and the appendix had sloughed off. He was nursed by one of our W.E.C. nurses and made a good recovery and gave his heart to the Lord.
Fractures
These were frequently caused by people climbing trees to collect fodder for their cattle There were no X - rays. One man, who was part of a wood cutting team, had had one of the trees fall across his thigh and break his femur at the junction of the upper and middle thirds. One who worked with us reminded me that there were some iron bars which he had removed from the side of the old outhouse. If they were given to the blacksmith in the village 3 miles away, he would be able to make a splint out of them similar to the picture I had shown him. The blacksmith produced a very creditable specimen of a Thomas's splint, complete with the leather wrapped round the ring, and this I applied. After treating him in extension with adhesive plaster and an overhead beam we used it as a walking calliper. He re-appeared one day at the hospital and marched proudly up in front of the other patients to show how well his thigh had healed. He gave us back the splint and it was used for many other patients.
Tiger Maul
A woman had been mauled by a tiger in her little village house ten miles from us as she lay sleeping with the door open in the upper room. Her husband and relatives sleeping in the courtyard screamed and the tiger made off. The woman had been scalped and had to be treated with penicillin before the scalp was washed and sutured. She made a wonderful recovery in spite of all this. This is more fully described by my wife in her book published by Avon Books entitled "The India we knew".
When there was no specialist
I specialised in cataract operations as I had been instructed by Sir Henry Holland on the North West frontier of India and also at St. Thomas's hospital where I had been an senior ophthalmic house surgeon but had never done any operations in England. The results were not brilliant but enabled many to receive useful sight.
Sometimes children were presented to us with hare lips and although we had no means of intubation nor suitable anaesthesia I did attempt to repair four or five of these with the wonderful co-operation of my wife in giving the chloroform. These were, as you can imagine, not very successful but I was at one stage encouraged by a young man being brought to me in his teens to show that one of these hare lip operations had been remarkably successful and he was able to feed normally.
Answered Prayer
We relied on prayer and faith for the Lord to undertake in our lack of skill, equipment and understanding. In so many ways again and again we were not disappointed. I do not remember an anaesthetic causing a death in spite of all the operations being carried out by chloroform. We agreed the things to be desired and the Lord graciously answered not only for ourselves but also for the ministry, medicine etc. We thanked God for his faithfulness as we made no appeals for money.
