TB Pioneers

03.09.2009

The Columban Sisters were in the forefront of the fight against TB in Hong Kong.

Seven Columban Sisters, all of whom had worked at the Ruttonjee Sanatorium, as the current general hospital in Wan Chai used to be known, joined in the 60th anniversary celebration of the Hong Kong Tuberculosis Chest and Heart Diseases Association during October.

In recognition of the achievements of the Columban Sisters during their 39-year administration of the sanatorium from its foundation in 1949, the association flew five of the sisters, all of whom have left Hong Kong, from Ireland for the occasion. They were joined at the celebrations by Sr Fintan Ryan and Sr Nora Mary O'Driscoll, who are still working in Hong Kong and China.

"We always remember them and what they did for us," said Edwin Leung, the chairperson of the association, whose own wife, Ruby, had suffered from tuberculosis (TB) since the age of three. She also lost her father to the disease that was responsible for the deaths of 150,000 people in Hong Kong during the
20th century.

He said that in 1949, when the Columban Sisters opened the sanatorium, it was set up on a grant of $800,000 from local business tycoon, Jehangir Hormusjee Ruttonjee. The real expertise in the treatment of the disease was in Europe, not in Asia, so the acquisition of the Columban Sisters was a great benefit. "Not many doctors here were experienced in treating TB," he said, "so these Columban Sisters gave us invaluable help."

Sr Greaney said that when the Columbans began at Ruttonjee there was a clear mission to those suffering from TB. "They were the poor and neglected of Hong Kong at the time," she explained. "However, now the Association has broadened its vision into other aspects of public health care, but it has not lost its focus on TB, which unfortunately is making a comeback in the world today."

Thought to have been eradicated by the 1980s, the World Health Organisation put TB back on the critical list in 1993. It anticipated that around 90 million new cases would be reported in the last decade of the century. This prompted a former medical officer at the sanatorium, Michael Iseman, to lament, "We knew how to cure TB, but we dropped the ball by not ensuring proper treatment."

Referring to breakthrough research done by the two Columban doctors, Sr Gabriel O'Mahony and Sr Aquinas Monahan, as well as the pioneering development of holistic care done by the Sisters on the staff, Iseman said, "We squandered a great legacy."

Sr Greaney told the Sunday Examiner that during her 35 years in Hong Kong, it was always the friendship of the Chinese people that really touched her. "I also spent time here with the Legion of Mary," she added, "and their welcome rivalled that of the people from the TB Association. Both were fantastic."

However, the Sisters who travelled from Ireland, all mentioned that, much as they enjoyed their lives and work in Hong Kong, an age comes when it is time to slow down. Sr Greaney said, "At 75, I found the pace of Hong Kong too fast. I wanted more time for myself and to enjoy being my age. I never wanted to go home, but it has worked out well."

She explained that there have always been two great passions in her life, the Legion of Mary and the Chinese people. "The amazing thing about my life today," she went on, "is that in Ireland, I not only have the opportunity to work with the Legion, but among Chinese students who are flocking into Irish universities as well. My life has come full circle."

The Columbans were innovative not only in medicine but also in spirituality. From Ruttonjee they moved on to play a big part in founding palliative care in the then-British colony. In the beginning, they were faced with the challenge of imbuing a highly secular medical institute, where no crucifixes or other objects of devotion could be displayed, with a Catholic ethos.

They always maintained that the witness of their lives, lived in expert and loving service, constituted their mode of evangelisation.

Fr Jim Mulroney worked in Japan and Australia and is presently the Editor of the Sunday Examiner.

Read more stories from The Far East, October