GROTESQUE APPEARANCE OF LEPERS SHOCKED SURGEON

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28372, 3 September 1957, Page 15

GROTESQUE APPEARANCE OF LEPERS SHOCKED SURGEON

The grotesque appearance and dreadful physical deformity of the patients shocked Dr. Walter Robertson, aged 68, a Wellington orthopedic surgeon, when he first walked into a leper colony three years ago. That was in South India, at the Christian Medical College Hospital at Vellore. After two years and a half voluntary work in that hospital, and others of the Mission to Lepers throughout India, he learnt how much more could be done for lepers if the trained staff was* available—and if they could be socially accepted on discharge

“It is a vile disease,” he said yesterday in Christchurch, where he has come to talk on the medical aspect of work among the lepers. Dr. Robertson, who was orthopedic surgeon at Wellington Hospital for many years, was in England, knowing nothing of leprosy, when he called at the mission’s head offices. They asked him to go to India, where he soon found that his skills were needed. Specialist Multiplicity “A multiplicity of specialists could be used in treating leprosy and its complications,” he said. “Every case of leprosy is a fertile field for the practice of any speciality.”

There was an enormous amount of work for an orthopedic special-

ist, as the field had been barely couched upon until recently Dr Paul Brand, a world authority, had worked in India on the treatment of the hands, and the rehabilitation of the use of the hands. Dr. Robertson said he “decided to start on the other end,” and studied the treatment of the feet of the lepers. Many had feet so ulcerated that they could not walk, and special sandals had to be made for them. He also found that one of the complications was a shrinkage of the bone. This was peculiar to

leprosy, and sometimes left only the toe-nails, where once full toes had been growing. The skin was unbroken and showed no signs of disease. As the feet lost their sense of feeling they could be easily hurt or damaged without the patient knowing, and this added z to the doctor’s difficulties.

Leprosy could be arrested by early drug treatment and continued use of the drugs could prevent its further - spread. This, allied to the rehabilitation of the use of the affected parts, gave the lepers a new lease of life. Physical Rehabilitation

“We found we could rehabilitate them physically, but not socially,” he said. “Leprosy is the third disease of India, after tuberculosis and venereal disease, and it leaves its victims social outcasts.”

The biggest colony where Dr. Robertson worked had 850 patients. He spent about two months at each of many colonies in different parts of India. Some of his time was spent in orthopedic surgery, part of it in training Indian doctors and technicians, and part in general medical work, where the colonies were short-staffed. For a period he was in charge of a colony. The Mission to Lepers, he said, was a Christian mission working in 30 countries, and in India most of the doctors and trained staff were Christians.

“The mission is bearing the brunt of the work in leprosy in India,” said Dr. Robertson. In the last eight months he has been speaking to clubs and church groups in New Zealand telling them something of the immensity of the problem as he saw it during his two years and a half there.