Meet the young British missionary who revolutionized healthcare in a remote territory at the other end of the world.
Wendy Grey Rogerson had been nursing in Tongud—a tiny settlement in the remote interior of what was then British North Borneo—for just over a week when a young man turned up at her clinic in a desperate state. Ulor was being carried by his father after a long journey from a distant village that had involved travelling both by boat and on foot through the difficult jungle terrain. His left knee was the size of a football, making walking impossible. A young father in his twenties, he was also accompanied by his wife and small child.
Ulor had a high fever and was deteriorating fast. Wendy suspected septicaemia, a potentially fatal infection. He needed to get to a hospital, but the nearest one was in Sandakan, five days away down the Kinabatangan river. Wendy had travelled to Tongud from Sandakan by that very route 10 days earlier, and she feared it was too long and arduous a trip for her patient to bear, especially in the dugout canoe at their disposal. But she was a nurse, not a doctor, and had only the most basic medical equipment in the clinic that she ran single-handedly on an Anglican mission. There was one means of swift communication with the outside world: a tele-radio, via which, at pre-arranged times, mission staff could speak to the priest in Sandakan. Fortunately, they were due to make contact the next morning. Wendy described her patient and asked if a doctor could advise her as soon as possible about how to proceed. The reply came back a few hours later: She was to operate on Ulor without delay.
Today, aged 89, at her home in the British cathedral city of Durham, Wendy sounds calm and matter-of-fact about how she received this message, though she admits that it was a huge responsibility. “It was ...
from Christianity Today Magazine https://ift.tt/3636kOw
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