myprivatecollection11
MISSION HOSPITAL QUETTA, BALUCHISTAN 1900
Quetta's mission hospital was originally established in 1886, and had been rebuilt after the earthquake. In the courtyard there were small cottages forming the caravanserai where patients were nursed by relatives who also took care of food and cooking.
Throughout the day, electric amplifiers and loudspeakers alerted us to the call of the muezzin, reminding our Christian medical island of the dominant culture that lapped against the walls of the hospital compound. Purdah (seclusion) and veiling were still upheld in Quetta despite its cosmopolitan community. The hospital had a segregated women's section, the zenana wards.
The hospital served the city and the region, catering particularly to the trans-border nomadic Pathans who moved down through the Bolan Pass to the southern plains during the winter, returning to the hills of Afghanistan during the summer. Accordingly, these tribal nomads had two opportunities each year to benefit from Western medicine.
Cataracts and neglected chronic diseases were common presentations, as was diarrhoea. I myself suffered diarrhoea on several occasions and progressively lost weight during my stay. Faecal tests positive for blood and/or amoebae sentenced one to amoebicides; negatives dictated sulfas, to which my bugs responded.
The diarrhoea was surely related to the town's contaminated water supply. Irrigation water from the city's reservoirs flowed through the streets alongside the footpaths. Using removable paddles, the waterman selectively diverted the flow into separate open channels for individual sections of the town on given days. Not surprisingly, the water reaching our vegetable gardens in the hospital compound was murky. This public health issue didn't seem to agitate either the city authorities or, in general, the Western doctors!
In winter, the hospital ran an outreach clinic at Shikarpur, 200 miles to the south. Many such clinics, known as "cataract camps", were held on the Indian subcontinent under missionary auspices, foreshadowing the Fred Hollows Foundation.
Cataract surgery and other procedures
Every operation began with a Christian prayer. For the anxious patient, this was extra premedication. Local anaesthesia was used for cataract operations — patients' eyelids were kept open during the procedure with a pair of locally made fork retractors, handheld by the assistant, one of the male nurses trained in the hospital's own program. Graefe section with conjunctival flap was standard, progressing to intracapsular extraction. I carried out over 100 cataract procedures in my 10 weeks, and many plastic operations on eyelids and tear ducts. I treated one patient with retinal detachment. I also assisted at numerous general surgical procedures and outpatient clinics.
MISSION HOSPITAL QUETTA, BALUCHISTAN 1900
Quetta's mission hospital was originally established in 1886, and had been rebuilt after the earthquake. In the courtyard there were small cottages forming the caravanserai where patients were nursed by relatives who also took care of food and cooking.
Throughout the day, electric amplifiers and loudspeakers alerted us to the call of the muezzin, reminding our Christian medical island of the dominant culture that lapped against the walls of the hospital compound. Purdah (seclusion) and veiling were still upheld in Quetta despite its cosmopolitan community. The hospital had a segregated women's section, the zenana wards.
The hospital served the city and the region, catering particularly to the trans-border nomadic Pathans who moved down through the Bolan Pass to the southern plains during the winter, returning to the hills of Afghanistan during the summer. Accordingly, these tribal nomads had two opportunities each year to benefit from Western medicine.
Cataracts and neglected chronic diseases were common presentations, as was diarrhoea. I myself suffered diarrhoea on several occasions and progressively lost weight during my stay. Faecal tests positive for blood and/or amoebae sentenced one to amoebicides; negatives dictated sulfas, to which my bugs responded.
The diarrhoea was surely related to the town's contaminated water supply. Irrigation water from the city's reservoirs flowed through the streets alongside the footpaths. Using removable paddles, the waterman selectively diverted the flow into separate open channels for individual sections of the town on given days. Not surprisingly, the water reaching our vegetable gardens in the hospital compound was murky. This public health issue didn't seem to agitate either the city authorities or, in general, the Western doctors!
In winter, the hospital ran an outreach clinic at Shikarpur, 200 miles to the south. Many such clinics, known as "cataract camps", were held on the Indian subcontinent under missionary auspices, foreshadowing the Fred Hollows Foundation.
Cataract surgery and other procedures
Every operation began with a Christian prayer. For the anxious patient, this was extra premedication. Local anaesthesia was used for cataract operations — patients' eyelids were kept open during the procedure with a pair of locally made fork retractors, handheld by the assistant, one of the male nurses trained in the hospital's own program. Graefe section with conjunctival flap was standard, progressing to intracapsular extraction. I carried out over 100 cataract procedures in my 10 weeks, and many plastic operations on eyelids and tear ducts. I treated one patient with retinal detachment. I also assisted at numerous general surgical procedures and outpatient clinics.