QUAINT PATIENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 305, 26 December 1931, Page 10

QUAINT PATIENTS.

MISSION HOSPITAL WORK.

DOCTOR FROM THE SOLOMONS

WINNING NATIVE CONFIDENCE

Dressed in his birthday suit— the only, one he has got —a little Solomon Island baby,runs about the compound, of;';the Melanesian Mission Hospital, Fauba, ; on Mala Island. . ;: ->He is: :a sturdy little fellow, .aiul-.thotigh he does not know it, he •■•is. /.gom&wkat' of a celebrity—he is the '"first '"Plunket baby" in that part of the world. The fact tliathe inaugurated, in his engaging little- brown person, the regime enjoined by Sir Trub'y King, was quite accidental. .'The hospital is not a Plunket institution. He was adopted at birth, after the death of ;his mother. . There: is plenty" Of work to do among the--mothers and children, but that will have to .wait for want of workers. ■■£#••' -■•■•'' ■■:-'-"V : r:: <'•■-. ■

-on.e would .have thought -that among 'the-:, island /women; Irving natural healthy ;livesi Would be practically;: nil,. i>ut:"Sueh..- is - not - the case. Thpi-babiea ;a%b have a hard fight for difjej.AVith;.thein-vifc :.ja the survival of :thc; : #ftes^. fe little Plunket baby 'of • rife ; hosp]tal compound will never Solomon Island ; motliers:- liave-.-the • weirdest ideas about feeding thdr. offspring. Sir Truby King would; no''doubt stand aghast if be con Id-see, one of these misguided matrons giving : her; f9U.r;-day-old Laby a "blob" of taro that sire-has-previously chewed' herself, realising that baby could not do it for himself. Taro is one of the starchiest, stodgiest of the island foods —a sodden potato would be as puff-paste compared to it. ..-;., Risk of Malaria. • ; - ''•' ' „ T , he officer in "'charge of 'the : Mala. Hospital, 'Dr. Maybujx who' is now '■in Auckland, pn.. furlough, accompanied by. Mrs;/Maybury -and:-tbeir. child, is- a remarkable instance -ofc.-tlie--- efficacy of taking proper -precautions. >, Mala Hos-p.itaLis-just about eight, degrees from the Equator, and the. place simply, hums with the mosquito that, carries malaria; The natives are so soaked with the disease that they are practically immune, and still, after, two years, Dr. Maybtirv has never had an attack of it. All the windows and doors are protected with wire, gauze, * everyone uses a mosquito - jet, /at, night,,; in the household :>vear. two:.pairsiol 1 Socks—the mosquito Can: 'bitef through/.One -pair, but not ?tlu:Dtigh / vDrSi v Maybury himself, when ■going out at night, is careful not .to leave his arms or neck exposed. Still, anybne v with a knowledge of the penetrating ways of the anopheles will .marvel that the doctor came through unscatheck-- : '. . In addition to Dr. Maybury, the staff includes Mr. Fletcher and two nursing sisters, one from Tasmania and one from New Zealand. For a while the work was carried on in temporary buildings, but thanks to'a gift of £2000 by an Englishwoman, and other, glf ts, ■ includ-: ing : . f 1000. -from another,' Englishwoman, &jpikfl ;has been made with the perma.■ne'nt • whieli include the WelchMan^Wardj'the only one finished, It says. much., for the of the mission staff that with .the-help .of one ,pr~^wo ;colleagups/practieally the whoLe -of ..the been done, 'by .Mr.' .Fletcher The W.elchman. Ward is a: : £welve"-:b'ed buiiding^/bf, .concrete blocks, but.,, with the' '-characteristic ; ' native /thatched roof and.Avide* verandahs back front. Although'there vafe no : tilpd walls there is plenty of-liriYewash to: by had for the making, arid'' there is no' difficulty in keeping the ward, thoroughly hygienic. * . '■■.*■.'•■ V.. -: ■; , : ' - ■~ ■:':■■■ Patient Decamps. / In; Auckland the .difficulty is to keep people.from crowding'the, hospital, but in the Solomons the heathen section.of the public, looks on trie institution Avith •a: good deal, ; of- suspieioh, being:, not, .quite.sufe'thati there is not,some potent white' man witchcraft, .going on behind those, gauze.-cpyered doors ;and: windows'. Although ; the : heathen - islander is not altogether : far from tame, and the, are |;gQcasionally. disconcertr. ing. -For instance, one scared-iooking ruffian was left safely in his little white bed overnight, and when the sister went next morning to attend, to him she had found that the. patient had simply bolted back.to the hills —through sheer fright. But gradually news of the wonderful work among the patients who have submitted to the ordeal has been spreading, and to-day 'the natives come in voluntarily for treatment. At first they had to be enticed in, no matter how they were suffering, . . Natives who live on the coast—"saltwater natives," as ..they are called—are comparatively clean, and when they become patients there is not much trouble in getting them into hospital trim, but when a man comes in from the bush, where water is not so plentiful, he sometimes has to be given a scrubbing brush and a bucket full of strong, detergent solution to bring himself into something like condition for surgical treatment. The Clothes Problem. The usual tropical diseases are com-mon-in the Solomons, and, sad to relate, tuberculosis is, taking heavy toll. As it is an introduced disease, the natives are .terribly susceptible to it. In this case the neck to ankle costume, generally recognised,in.the islands as "mission dress," cannot be, blamed. ■The Meianesiau Mission very Avisely • refrain from forcing European clothes on the Solomon Islanders; the most they do is to substitute a white cotton loin-cloth for the grass girdle which is all some of the natives understand under the heading "clothes." Hospitals Far and Few Between. There are several other hospitals in the Solomons, a bigger Government institution with three medical officers at Tulagi, 60 miles away from Mala, and two Methodist mission hospitals, run by Dr. Sayers and Dr. James, both New Zealanders, but the attention they -can give is very small when it is realised that the population of the scattered group is between 150,000 and 100,000 natives' and some 500 whites. To give an" instance of the scattered nature of the, communities —the hospital on Mala is only 00 miles, away from Tulagi, but sometimes Dr. Maybury may have to wait three months. before. getting medical supplies across. He has no boat, and if he cannot get a friendly lift he has to travel by native canoe.

Jt will be remembered that sometime ago spme Government officials were murdered on the,island of Mala. Asked about the present state of the natives, Dr. May bury said .he . would not have any ' liesitation in going anywhere unarmed, but he did not think it would be safe for any of the Government people to go unarmed—the natives were quite able to realise the difference between the- missionaries and the people who in then minds were associated with taxes and regulations.