Holm singers to raise funds for
leprosy hospital laundry
By Lorraine Shearer
(From The Orcadian dated May 10, 2001)

"The wards are packed full at the moment with many patients appearing daily with horrendous wounds."

It could be a hospital scene from any war zone. However, at Lal Gadh Hospital in Nepal the staff are fighting a different battle - against leprosy and the stigma still attached to the disease.

Among the staff are Orkney couple Alasdair and Moira Murray, who gave up their jobs over a year ago to carry out church work as mission partners.

Moira was a relief nurse in Orkney and works in the hospital. "Two days ago a pitiful man appeared at out-patients and I was called to assist. The poor man had been thrown out of his house seven days before and left to die. He hadn't been given any food or water and was barely conscious."

She continued: "The lower half of his right leg had a huge sore crawling with maggots which were eating away dead flesh. We worked on him for over an hour cutting away dead flesh and picking out maggots. We then bathed him, dressed him in clean clothes, and made him comfortable in one of our wards. He's still alive but we will probably have to amputate his leg once his condition stabilises."

The leprosy hospital has around 50 beds and also doubles as a snake bite centre. It is run by a small independent trust called the Nepal Leprosy Trust.

While they are working hard to make a difference, improvements are necessary within the hospital. Something as simple as putting clean sheets on the beds has become a task for the staff, as all they have to work with is a concrete sink and plastic bucket.

Rev Joan Craig, minister for Holm, St Andrews and Deerness visited the hospital in November last year, and saw first hand how difficult it is for staff.

"The laundry, in comparison to the rest of the hospital, is very poor. It is literally just a sink - that is the laundry. Patients are asked to lie on sheets that have just been through an ordinary wash when there is infection around. There is obviously a risk to staff in washing sheets like that by hand," she said.

On hearing of the problems incurred in the laundry a small group of singers, the Holm Linties, decided to organise a fundraising event to raise enough money to buy one or two industrial washing machines.

The laundry fund has reached £2,500, but it costs around £3,000 for one industrial washing machine.

The group are organising a concert for June 8 in the Holm Hall, and are trying to get as many folk involved as possible.

Kath Hague of the Holm Linties said: "They literally have a sink and a plastic bucket and wash the sheets by hand, often the sheets are still soiled.

"If everybody in Orkney gave about 30p we would have enough money for a washing machine."

Leprosy is still very much prevalent in Nepal and still very much a disease that sees sufferers made outcast.

The infection attacks skin and nerves. There are two principal manifestations; lepromatous leprosy is a contagious progressive form distinguished by the appearance of raised blotches and lumps on the skin, with numbness, weakness, paralysis and ultimately deformity of the affected parts. Tuberculoid leprosy sees the loss of sensation in some areas of the skin.

The visible effects of long-standing leprosy are due to nerve damage and injuries of which the sufferer may be unaware.

"Pain is a blessing to leprosy sufferers," Rev Craig explained, "for what happens with leprosy is you do not feel, so you do not know the damage you are doing to yourself."

After the patients have been treated they go to a special unit set up within the hospital to learn how to get on with normal life and how to take precautions to protect themselves, before they go home.

Work also goes on to inform people that leprosy is curable and does not mean people have to be outcasts.

When Joan was in Nepal it was rice harvest time of year, and the hospital was relatively quiet. "They don't go to the hospital at that time of the year to get treatment, they are far too busy."

It's certainly not all doom and gloom in Nepal or at the hospital for help is getting through to some and Alasdair and Moira have just confirmed that they have had another three months' visa accepted.

The hospital opened in 1996 and facilities are generally good, with running tap water and even hot water, heated via solar panels and Joan explained that it could be difficult to get patients to leave as they were looked after so well in the hospital.