MOMBASA HOSPITAL'S COLOURFUL PAST
Taken from notes compiled for patients and friends.
Taken from notes compiled for patients and friends.
'1901 was a noteable year in East Africa as the railway from Mombasa, after unprecedented difficulties of construction, reached Lake Victoria, Nyanza, and became known as the "Uganda Railway." The English Hospital in 1901 was of typical style Arab construction of two storeys with open veranda both up and downstairs and it, was a conspicuous landmark on the island. The majority of cases nursed were either malaria, dysentery or blackwater fever'.
Charles W. Hobley wrote 'Mombasa was a curious place in those days. Its extent was very limited. There was a town wall. The Fort was garrisoned by about a hundred wild Hadhramuthis - who were commanded by a venerable old Arab gentleman. Once outside the narrow lanes of the native town no roads other then narrow footpaths existed. Even the path leading to Kilindini was only about four feet wide and passed through a jungle the whole way.
This jungle was infested with puff adders and one invariably saw several in the course of an evening walk. It is wonderful how clearing and cultivation have in recent years well nigh abolished snakes from the island. Leopard roamed about the town at night snatching an odd goat here and there and one morning the news came that there was one asleep in the big Fir tree at the southern extremity of the main street. It vanished into the bush before we could get our rifles !
Mr. Hobley mentioned that two years after his arrival he took part in a lion hunt on the island !. A hospital Night Sister at that wrote 'Monitor Lizards (up to 8ft long) would be creeping about outside, some of which escaped the surgeon's dogs. When the night came for the Caledonian Dinner at the Mombasa Club, Sister would wait for casualties to arrive. Once when the piano was posited over much excitement resulted and a busy night was experienced at the hospital'.
A Health Visitor in Mombasa during the 1920s, a Miss Betty Roshe, wrote 'there is no running water in the English Hospital. All water is carried for baths and wash basins housed on rather shaky stands.
The water from the latter was disposed of by a vigorous throw over the veranda onto the coral rocks below and by a certain amount of judgement it usually missed anyone passing below. The tubs were emptied on to the floor, the water running away through a hole. There was one commode to each patient. Bedpans were carried down and emptied in a little sluice ream over the sea. There was no refrigerator. A large block of ice was carried daily on the back of' a hospital messenger. In hot weather a good deal of it melted down his back IMombasa at that time had a European population of about 600'.Writes Mr. N. P. Jewell, father of surgeon, John Jewell 'animals used to come across from the mainland and one European was gored through the hand trying to hold a bushbuck in the Fort moat.
I saw a bushbuck in Kilindini on the main road on one occasion and leopards came across at times'. The new hospital opened in 1950 and during 1953 a Sister recalls a severe accident at Voi and a rescue mission by chartered aircraft from Mombasa Airport. She said 'all available cars lined the airport strip with their headlights on to enable the pilot to take off and on its return flares had to be lit to enable the plane to land'.
It was also recalled that before equipment from the UK had been put in placein the hospital, hens were still roaming in and out of the Operating Theatre using the oxygen ramp and pecking at Sister's or the Surgeon's feet during an operations.
Charles W. Hobley wrote 'Mombasa was a curious place in those days. Its extent was very limited. There was a town wall. The Fort was garrisoned by about a hundred wild Hadhramuthis - who were commanded by a venerable old Arab gentleman. Once outside the narrow lanes of the native town no roads other then narrow footpaths existed. Even the path leading to Kilindini was only about four feet wide and passed through a jungle the whole way.
This jungle was infested with puff adders and one invariably saw several in the course of an evening walk. It is wonderful how clearing and cultivation have in recent years well nigh abolished snakes from the island. Leopard roamed about the town at night snatching an odd goat here and there and one morning the news came that there was one asleep in the big Fir tree at the southern extremity of the main street. It vanished into the bush before we could get our rifles !
Mr. Hobley mentioned that two years after his arrival he took part in a lion hunt on the island !. A hospital Night Sister at that wrote 'Monitor Lizards (up to 8ft long) would be creeping about outside, some of which escaped the surgeon's dogs. When the night came for the Caledonian Dinner at the Mombasa Club, Sister would wait for casualties to arrive. Once when the piano was posited over much excitement resulted and a busy night was experienced at the hospital'.
A Health Visitor in Mombasa during the 1920s, a Miss Betty Roshe, wrote 'there is no running water in the English Hospital. All water is carried for baths and wash basins housed on rather shaky stands.
The water from the latter was disposed of by a vigorous throw over the veranda onto the coral rocks below and by a certain amount of judgement it usually missed anyone passing below. The tubs were emptied on to the floor, the water running away through a hole. There was one commode to each patient. Bedpans were carried down and emptied in a little sluice ream over the sea. There was no refrigerator. A large block of ice was carried daily on the back of' a hospital messenger. In hot weather a good deal of it melted down his back IMombasa at that time had a European population of about 600'.Writes Mr. N. P. Jewell, father of surgeon, John Jewell 'animals used to come across from the mainland and one European was gored through the hand trying to hold a bushbuck in the Fort moat.
I saw a bushbuck in Kilindini on the main road on one occasion and leopards came across at times'. The new hospital opened in 1950 and during 1953 a Sister recalls a severe accident at Voi and a rescue mission by chartered aircraft from Mombasa Airport. She said 'all available cars lined the airport strip with their headlights on to enable the pilot to take off and on its return flares had to be lit to enable the plane to land'.
It was also recalled that before equipment from the UK had been put in placein the hospital, hens were still roaming in and out of the Operating Theatre using the oxygen ramp and pecking at Sister's or the Surgeon's feet during an operations.
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