A Story of the Red Cross; Glimpses of Field WorkBarton, Clara
History
A Story of the Red Cross; Glimpses of Field Work
Barton, Clara
American National Red Cross
While this was in progress, a dispatch came to me at Constantinople from
Dr. Shepard of Aintab, whose tireless hands had done the work of a score
of men, saying that fevers, both typhoid and typhus, of the most
virulent nature, had broken out in Arabkir, two or three days north of
Harpoot; could I send doctors and help? Passing the word on to Dr.
Hubbell at Harpoot, prompt and courageous action was taken by him. It is
something to say that from a rising pestilence with a score of deaths
daily, in five weeks, himself and his assistants left the city in a
normally healthful condition, the mortality ceasing at once under their
care and treatment.
During this time the medical relief for the cities of Zeitoun and Marash
was in charge of Dr. Ira Harris, of Tripoli, who reached there March
18th. The report of the consuls had placed the number of deaths from the
four contagious diseases at one hundred a day. This would be quite
probable when it is considered that ten thousand were smitten with the
prevailing diseases, and that added to this were the crowded condition
of the patients, the thousands of homeless refugees who had flocked from
their forsaken villages, the lack of all comforts, of air, cleanliness,
and a state of prolonged starvation.
Dr. Harris's first report to me was that he was obliged to set the soup
kettles boiling and feed his patients before medicine could be retained.
My reply was a draft for two hundred liras (something over eight hundred
dollars) with the added dispatch: "Keep the pot boiling; let us know
your wants." The further reports show from this time an astonishingly
small number of deaths. The utmost care was taken by all our expeditions
to prevent the spread of the contagion and there is no record of its
ever having been carried out of the cities, where it was found, either
at Zeitoun, Marash, or Arabkir. Lacking this precaution, it might well
have spread throughout all Asia Minor, as was greatly feared by the
anxious people.
On the twenty-fourth of May, Dr. Harris reported the disease as
overcome. His stay being no longer needed, he returned to his great
charge in Tripoli, with the record of a medical work and success behind
him never surpassed if ever equaled. The lives he had saved were enough
to gain Heaven's choicest diadem. Never has America cause to be more
justly proud and grateful than when its sons and daughters in foreign
lands perform deeds of worth like that.
The closing of the medical fields threw our entire force into the
general relief of the vilayet of Harpoot, which the relieving
missionaries had well named their "bottomless pit."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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