Kurumba patients

Again it happened in my absence in Aravenu.  It was reported to Joyce that a Kurumba man was admitted in a hospital run for Tribals by a Welfare Society.  The hospital was right in the middle of the jungle and there was no resident doctor or other facilities there.  Very poor care was given to patients due to lack of staff, facilities and medicines.

As soon as Joyce heard about it, she went to a driver friend of ours and with his help went to that hospital and brought the patient to a good Christian hospital where doctors were friends.  The hospital had very good facilities also.  The patient was almost dying when he reached the second hospital.  Doctors admitted him because he was now our patient though they thought the patient would die soon.  But the amazing thing was that the patient recovered fully within a week.  By the time he was discharged, he had a new layer of skin as one layer had fallen off his body.  The patient was all swollen up when admitted.  I was back by his discharge time.  The doctor friend told me that he gave no other medicine than Vitamin B tablets to the patient!

On another occasion Joyce had a Kurumba lady brought to our house and made a nursing home in one of our rooms with the aid of a local medical practitioner.  The lady was given drips for two days.  But finding that she was still sinking, her relatives took her back to the village, on which way she passed away.