LETTER BY RUNNER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31871, 26 December 1968, Page 8

LETTER BY RUNNER

An air-mail letter received in Christchurch this week covered the first 180 miles of its journey by ’ runner through rugged terrain in Nepal. From Dr R. Evans, at the Hillary Hospital at Khumjung, the letter was addressed to Dr D. H. Cummack and Dr M. M. Cummack, and in it Dr Evans described some of his diverse duties. The letter itself was carried by hand from Khum-

jung to the Nepalese capital of Katmandu. The hospital is at an altitude of 12,720 ft and is almost surrounded by peaks of more than 20,000 ft. It is four days trek from the Base Camp at Mount Everest. As well as being a doctor to the Sherpa people. Dr Evans acts as a veterinary surgeon to their animals, particularly the yaks, a Tibetan beast of burden. Sherpas’ broken arms and yaks’ broken legs, patients both human and animal suffering from diarrhoea, haematuria, eye injuries, tuberculosis and goitre, all come within Dr Evans’s scope.

I Medicine, however, is not the only field in which Dr Evans has to use his talents. : In his spare time he creosotes i bridges, fills in pot-holes on ; the local airstrip and un- : blocks water pipelines, all of which were built, as was the ’ hospital, by expeditions led by Sir Edmund Hillary. Mrs Evans teaches English at the Khumjung school, 30 minutes walk from the hospital. Many of the Sherpas go’ to the hospital to take special l lessons through the severe I winter as the school is closed! for that period. Dr Evans has three Sherpa i assistants at the hospital. i