4
' ewiotmdlana The Mission operates two hospital ships: the Gould and the Maraval, cover the coast of Northern Newfoundland, the Straits of Belle lsle and the east coast of Labrador, from early June to late October. SANATORIUM NEW DORMITORY AT NORTH-WEST RIVER Most friends of the Grenfell Mission know of the educational work which has been accomplished over many years at Yale School in North- West River. The children, who come to Yale School from the small, outlying settlements of Labrador, have been accommodated in two small, inadequate cottages. This year a new dormitory was built, from funds contributed by friends in Canada, Great Britain and the United States. This building was completed in December, and can accommodate 50 children. It is a very valuable addition to the fundamental work that Dr Paddon does in education in the North- West River district. *;:olH''4 i Lf/.{) "/ <l _, ·. ( To carry on its extensive and widespread work, the Grenfell Mission ...: .... has six permanent doctors, in hospital stations at Cartwright, Harringtm t' Harbour, North-West River and St. Anthony. On the perman i nursing staff there are eleven English, three Canadian and one Americ nurse. All the hospitals have been fully staffed and operating during ili past year. ' ' . ' Icebergs off the Coast Each station is also equipped with small boats, in which the doctor or nurse in charge can travel for shorter distances in their di stricts. In a country with no roads, the problem of transporting sick people by sea in all kinds of weather is sometimes a formidable operation, requiring skilful navigators and a medical staff who are willing to take risks which in peaceful times are almost unknown in other parts of the world. Often times the nurses must use any available transportation to move patients from their nursing stations to one of the hospitals for treatment of complicated cases. In October, one of the indomitable nurses at Flowers Cove spent fourteen hours in a small boat, protected from the weather only by a canvas cover, bringing to St. Anthony Hospital a patient seriously ill with peritonitis. Early in November, when the North Atlantic is very rough, the nurse at Forteau availed herself of a fishing schooner that happened to be lying in Forteau Harbour to transport a patient to St. Anthony. During the past summer, medical students from American, Canadian and British universities spent six weeks to two months on the coast, aiding us materially. Several of these students have returned year after year, as they find the work very rewarding; they have such direct contact with the patients, not only as p3tients, but as human beings and friends. All the hospital stations are busy, and the hospital at St. Anthony is crowded with pat j ents all winter and summer, the Doctor-in-charge having had some very striking and encouraging results with the opera- u-eatment of T.B. patients. Reports show the complicated and strenuous type of work that any doctor connected with the Grenfell Mission must handle. Early in the winter, when the sea was particularly rough and flying impossible, a young boy with a foreign body in the bronchus was brought seventy miles in a small boat to St. Anthony. Dr. Thomas was successful in removing it . A short time after, when it was impossible to travel by t .. i . Women's Ward, St. Anthony's Hospital rJf1Pi . (lA ttr3 At.( N1;'f{ lq'5z \e

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Page 1: ewiotmdlana (lA and the ttr3collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/SixtyYearsForward.pdfPrinted by Headley Brothers Ltd 109 Kingsway London WC2 and Ashford Kent • J ' SIXTY years have passed

'

~ ewiotmdlana \~ 8r~. The Mission operates two hospital ships: the Gould and the Maraval,

w~ich cover the coast of Northern Newfoundland, the Straits of Belle lsle and the east coast of Labrador, from early June to late October.

SANATORIUM

NEW DORMITORY AT NORTH-WEST RIVER Most friends of the Grenfell Mission know of the educational work

which has been accomplished over many years at Yale School in North­West River. The children, who come to Yale School from the small, outlying settlements of Labrador, have been accommodated in two small, inadequate cottages. This year a new dormitory was built, from funds contributed by friends in Canada, Great Britain and the United States. This building was completed in December, and can accommodate 50 children. It is a very valuable addition to the fundamental work that Dr Paddon does in education in the North-West River district.

*;:olH''4i Lf/.{) "/ <l ~~ _, ·. ~

,()~ ~ ~ (

To carry on its extensive and widespread work, the Grenfell Mission...: .... has six permanent doctors, in hospital stations at Cartwright, Harringtmt ' Harbour, North-West River and St. Anthony. On the perman i nursing staff there are eleven English, three Canadian and one Americ nurse. All the hospitals have been fully staffed and operating during ili past year.

~· 1~~, _.

' ~

' ~ .

'

Icebergs off the Coast

Each station is also equipped with small boats, in which the doctor or nurse in charge can travel for shorter distances in their districts.

In a country with no roads, the problem of transporting sick people by sea in all kinds of weather is sometimes a formidable operation, requiring skilful navigators and a medical staff who are willing to take risks which in peaceful times are almost unknown in other parts of the world. Often times the nurses must use any available transportation to move patients from their nursing stations to one of the hospitals for treatment of complicated cases. In October, one of the indomitable nurses at Flowers Cove spent fourteen hours in a small boat, protected from the weather only by a canvas cover, bringing to St. Anthony Hospital a patient seriously ill with peritonitis.

Early in November, when the North Atlantic is very rough, the nurse at Forteau availed herself of a fishing schooner that happened to be lying in Forteau Harbour to transport a patient to St. Anthony.

During the past summer, medical students from American, Canadian and British universities spent six weeks to two months on the coast, aiding us materially. Several of these students have returned year after year, as they find the work very rewarding; they have such direct contact with the patients, not only as p3tients, but as human beings and friends.

All the hospital stations are busy, and the hospital at St. Anthony is crowded with patjents all winter and summer, the Doctor-in-charge having had some very striking and encouraging results with the opera­tiv~ u-eatment of T.B. patients. Reports show the complicated and strenuous type of work that any doctor connected with the Grenfell Mission must handle.

Early in the winter, when the sea was particularly rough and flying impossible, a young boy with a foreign body in the bronchus was brought seventy miles in a small boat to St. Anthony. Dr. Thomas was successful in removing it. A short time after, when it was impossible to travel by

t .. i .

Women's Ward, St. Anthony's Hospital

rJf1Pi. (lA ttr3 At.( N1;'f{ lq'5z ~' \e c.~

Page 2: ewiotmdlana (lA and the ttr3collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/SixtyYearsForward.pdfPrinted by Headley Brothers Ltd 109 Kingsway London WC2 and Ashford Kent • J ' SIXTY years have passed

The Mission operates two hospital ships: the Gould and the Maraval, which cover the coast of Northern Newfoundland, the Straits of Belle Isle and the east coast of Labrador, from early June to late October. Each station is also equipped with small boats, in which the doctor or nurse in charge can travel for shorter distances in their districts.

In a country with no roads, the problem of transporting sick people by sea in all kinds of weather is sometimes a formidable operation, requiring skilful navigators and a medical staff who are willing to take risks which in peaceful times are almost unknown in other parts of the world. Often times the nurses must use any available transportation to move patients from their nursing stations to one of the hospitals for treatment of complicated cases. In October, one of the indomitable nurses at Flowers Cove spent fourteen hours in a small boat, protected from the weather only by a canvas cover, bringing to St. Anthony Hospital a patient seriously ill with peritonitis.

Early in November, when the North Atlantic is very rough, the nurse at Forteau availed herself of a fishing schooner that happened to be lying in Forteau Harbour to transport a patient to St. Anthony.

During the past summer, medical students from American, Canadian and British universities spent six weeks to two months on the coast, aiding us materially. Several of these students have returned year after year, as they find the work very rewarding; they have such direct contact with the patients, not only as patients, but as human beings and friends.

All the hospital stations are busy, and the hospital at St. Anthony is crowded with patients all winter and summer, the Doctor-in-charge having had some very striking and encouraging results with the opera­tiv~ treatment of T.B. patients. Reports show the complicated and strenuous type of work that any doctor connected with the Grenfell Mission must handle.

Early in the winter, when the sea was particularly rough and flying impossible, a young boy with a foreign body in the bronchus was brought seventy miles in a small boat to St. Anthony. Dr. Thomas was successful in removing it. A short time after, when it was impossible to travel by

I

!

w..._•, Ward, St. Anthony's Hospital

water and there was very little snow on the ground, making travel by dog-team difficult and painful, a patient requiring immediately a most difficult operation was hauled to St. Anthony Hospital by manpower.

While Dr. Thomas was on a trip to the Straits of Belle Isle Settlements, a mechanic he had taken with him had a sudden attack of appendicitis, and required an immediate operation at the nursing station. The next day, a boy with a fractured femur, which required operative treatment, was brought in.

These cases are cited to illustrate the varied aspects of the medical work of the doctors on the Grenfell Mission. These men must be abdom­inal surgeons, obstetricians, orthopaedic surgeons, pediatricians, and general medical men. The results that they achieve are amazing, practising on one of the last frontiers-Newfoundland and Labrador-where specialization in medicine is not possible.

The boarding schools-Yale School at North-West River and Lock­wood School at Cartwright-and the children's home at St. Anthony care for about I 20 children yearly. The boarding school is the only efficient method of educating the children of the isolated settlements. Young men and women are ~ent out for technical and supplementary education to the U.S.A., Canada and Great Britain, in order to return as trained workers to their own country.

The marine railway, or haul-up slip, which was donated to the Mission twenty years ago by an anonymous donor, is still in active operation, and many difficult repair problems on shipwrecked vessels are undertaken here.

The motor vessel Nellie A. Cluett brings all the Mission supplies from the mainland to St. Anthony, and distributes them to the outlying settlements and stations. Unfortunately, on the first trip of 1952, with a year's supply of food on board, the Cluett was badly damaged by ice in the Straits of Belle Isle, and it was very difficult to keep her afloat.

By great good luck there was a helicopter at St. Anthony at the time of the accident. The Captain was able to contact St. Anthony by radio­telephone, and the helicopter flew pumps from St. Anthony to the disabled Cluett and she was kept afloat and brought to St. Anthony for repairs on the Mission dock.

St. Anthony in Winter

Page 3: ewiotmdlana (lA and the ttr3collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/SixtyYearsForward.pdfPrinted by Headley Brothers Ltd 109 Kingsway London WC2 and Ashford Kent • J ' SIXTY years have passed

Christmas Cards are sold annually for the benefit of the work and are obtainable from the London Office and from Scotland.

Iceberg collecting boxes may be obtained on request.

Subscribers of 12s. 6d. per annum or more are entitled to receive, free of charge, the quarterly magazine, Among the Deep Sea Fishers.

BOOKS. In addition to the complete volume of Grenfell's auto­biography, A Labrador Doctor, price 15s., Hodder & Stoughton have now re-printed The Story of a Labrador Doctor in the abridged edition, paper cover, price 3s. 6d., which is obtainable from all booksellers and from the office of the Grenfell Association of Great Britain and Ireland, 66 Victoria Street, London, S.W.I.

THE SfO~Y OFJ-..

L.ABRADO~ rn>OC.T·OR

AS ·TOLD BY M1MSELF

Further particulars may be had from:

The Grenfell Mission carries on along a thousand-mile coastline icebound for many months each year: FOUR HOSPITALS ONE CHILDREN'S HOME TWO BOARDING SCHOOLS ONE SUPPLY VESSEL FIVE NURSING STATIONS ONE DAY SCHOOL TWO HOSPITAL SHIPS and other smaller boats Clothing Distribution, Industrial and Agricultural Centre~ a~ ttll Stations.

THE SECRETARY, GRENFELL ASSOCIATION, 66 VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, S.W.1. Tel.: VIctoria 7782

Or in Scotland, from MISS BETTY FYFE,

WESTLAND, KILMACOLM, RENFREWSHIRE.

The Hospital Ship "Mara val"

Printed by Headley Brothers Ltd 109 Kingsway London WC2 and Ashford Kent

• J '

SIXTY years have passed since Wilfred Grenfell, as a young doctor, sailed the Atlantic in a 90-ton ketch to find out the conditions of the fishermen living in Labrador. He discovered that no medical or social services existed for the English-speaking Settlers in this remote and sub-Arctic country. As a result, fractures and illnesses went unchecked, causing many to be crippled for life. An inadequate diet encouraged deficiency diseases, which were prevalent in every form. Gradually the bread­winners of many families became physically unable to continue their fishing, always a hazardous occupation, but especially so along the treacherous coasts of Labrador and Northern Newfoundland, and for men unequal to the struggle. Such conditions led inevitably to poverty and starvation, and left the field open to tuberculosis, which for so long has been the tragedy and scourge of the Coast.

Grenfell spent forty-three years of his life among the fishermen whom he loved and served, descendants of the men who left the West Country, Scotland and Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for the fishing grounds of Labrador.

The following account, based on a report by Dr. Charles Curtis, the Superintendent of the Grenfell Mission in the North, tells of the work that is being done today, work which is carried on in the spirit and tradition of its beloved Founder.

Page 4: ewiotmdlana (lA and the ttr3collections.mun.ca/PDFs/cns/SixtyYearsForward.pdfPrinted by Headley Brothers Ltd 109 Kingsway London WC2 and Ashford Kent • J ' SIXTY years have passed

'

The Mission greenhouse and gardens at St. Anthony supply the station with fresh vegetables during the summer and early winter, and the Mission barn supplies milk and fresh meat for the hospital, children's home and staff houses.

The gardens at the North-West River station are outstanding. North­West River, one hundred miles inland on the Hamilton Inlet, has a long, warm season so that vegetables can grow rapidly and in great quantities, and a large amount is produced at this station for the hospital, the school and for local use.

At Cartwright, where agriculture is more difficult because the season is shorter and the cold wind from the Atlantic often delays crops, all kinds of green vegetables are produced during the summer.

All the nursing stations have small gardens also, and a large amount of local produce, such as berries, fish and seal meat, are canned by the nurses at the different stations.

Thus, deficiency diseases have been overcome, and with the building of the Sanatorium the ravages of Tuberculosis will be checked at last. This unique service could not have been continued and developed with­out the help of our friends, and we owe them an infinite debt of gratitude. Money is still needed urgently, not only to maintain our work in these difficult days, but to expand it so that we may reach those who are living even further north. 'lnd who are cut off from our present hospital and nur,Ing statiOns, <1.nd where sub-Arctic c:onchti0n..:: ar~" h!lrcler tp ~ear

We serve a gallant people. Shall we see to it that the work W'ilfred Grenfell started shall never fail for the help each of us can give?

Our orphan family at play

Christmas Cards are sold annually for the benefit of the work and are obtainable from the London Office and from Scotland.

Iceberg collecting boxes may be obtained on request.

Subscribers of I2S. 6d. per annum or more are entitled to receive, free of charge, the quarterly magazine, Amang the Deep Sea Fishers.

BOOKS. In addition to the complete volume of Grenfell's auto­biography, A Labrador Doctor, price 15s., Hodder & Stoughton have now re-printed The Story of a Labrador Doctor in the abridged edition, paper cover, price 3s. 6d., which is obtainable from all booksellers and from the office of the Grenfell Association of Great Britain and Ireland, 66 Victoria Street, London, S.\V.I.

THt ~l"O;tV OF J\.

LABRADO~ ~OC'f·OR

AS TOLD BY M iMS£L~

Further particulars may be had from:

The Grenfell Mis<;ion carries on along a thousand-mile coastline icebound for many months each year:

FOUR HOSPITALS ONE CHILDREN'S HOME T\~ro BOARDING SCHOOLS ONE SUPPLY VESSEL FIVE NURSING STATIONS ONE DAY SCHOOL TWO HOSPITAL SHIPS and other <;maller boats Clothing Dbtributiun, Indu:,trial and Agril:ultural Cl!nU t~ aC' ,tJJ Station-;.

THE SECRETARY, GRENFELL ASSOCIATION, 66 VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, S.\X'. I. Tel. :VIctoria 7782

Or i·n Scotland, from MISS BETTY FYFE,

WESTLAND, KILMACOLM. RENFREWSHIRE.

I -

The Hospital Ship "Mara val"