GEORGE MEDAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 156, 30 December 1944, Page 7

GEORGE MEDAL

YOUNG WOMAN IN BURMA Hellen, 25-year-old daughter "of thf civil surgeon of Taunggyi, in Burma, ls pretty..and clever—and as tough as a cow-puncher, writes a London • "Daily Herald" . correspondent Her parents believed that their two daughters should b.e ready for anything in i country where emergencies constantly arise. That-is how Hellen same to ride a buffalo, a gift to her father from a head man, on whom he aad operated. To the amazement of -he Burmese, Mrs. Ridrigeuz rode it~ ike a horse—and taught her two daughters to do the same. Hellen took up her father's work. m her early twenties she became inat•on of the Taunggyi Hospital. Then the Japanese came. Two waves of bombers roared over ieilen's little hospital and on. to the xiilitary hospital. They razed it to he ground. Hellen Rodriguez 'ran here and carried the patients one by >ne to safety. The Japanese airmen eturned and machine-gunned her. She vent on. until all the patients were afe. Then she went back to her own lospital. now crowded.with casualties The doctors could not cope with hem all. With a steady hand, Hellen ook up instruments she had seen her ather use so often and operated on the urgent cases. " - - After that she'tended the injuredor four days and nights. "Utmost ourage and devotion to duty . . . her" ourage. initiative, and complete disre- ' ;ard of her own safety, were in the ughest traditions of the Nursing Ser--ice."* Thus the London "Gazette" an--lounged lhat Hellen Rodriguez had -