NURSED A LEPER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18586, 19 December 1923, Page 13

NURSED A LEPER.

I,• " I EX-MATRON'S MARTYRDOM. ] - .". y-s .-: CONTRACTS DREAD DISEASE NOW DYING IN; ISOLATION. The pathetic story of a woman who now, lies *in f isolation in a building near the Wooroloo (Western ' Australia) " Sanatorium, and' who is condemned sto a slow death by leprosy, has just been revealed. : v Some years ago the woman was matron in a hospital at Broome, and during her period of -. service there many men, representing many nations, passed i through her hands. In the course of time "Shevcame south', and developed a disease \ which doctors did; not feel disposed to diagnose in its early stages. Her daughter had married a medical man, under whose cara she remain ed in a country town for • soma time,'and; then, being in a state of great mental anxiety regarding the u^.f:« s V; of the disease, she went to Porth and,-saw the Commissioner of Public Health. "

The commissioner told her she was suffering from one of two dread diseases, and so far as he could say at the 'moment, he believed it was leprosy. < : She was admitted to the hospital, and in the course of a few days the dread sentence of slow death from the terrible malady was made known to her. : ,

"She took the news like a champion,*' says the Health Commissioner, and : she is now living a. lonely life - t in the place set apart for lepers at Wooroloo. So far as could be learned by the health authorities, the woman had never while at Broome nursed a leper, and a search of the records was made to ascertain whether it was possible any leper may have passed through the institution there without the knowledge of the department. It is now believed that such a: man, an aboriginal, was treated at the hospital, and was nursed by the matron. ."■:.-*. . The native died subsequently, and the woman, who in the outpost of service nursed him in the days of his affliction and contracted the disease, .is now loft to end her ; days a leper. -' • '-::\ %