Gurkhas Hospital Nepal

This interesting article describes the care and treatment of Gurkhas and the Nepalese population surrounding British Military Hospital in Dharan with injuries ranging from shrapnel, snakebites that led to amputations, Tuberculosis and happier events of births.

The following are from the February 1977 edition of Soldier Magazine and are reproduced here with kind permission of www.soldiermagazine.co.uk





The original story was by John Walton whilst the pictures were by Doug Pratt. It reads:

Not-forgotten Gurkhas:

The fight against disease

In late 1943 Rifleman Indrajung Rai was hit in the head by a splinter from a Japanese grenade when serving in Burma. He went on pension in 1946 and little was known of him until in 1976 he came to Dharan seeking aid. He complained that he was unable to carry heavy loads on his back because the straps hurt his head. An X-ray showed the quarter-inch splinter lodged in his scalp and it was removed at the British Military Hospital. He can now wear a 'namlo' without pain for the fist time in more than 30 years.





The photograph above shows Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Mummery examining a patient during clinic. Whilst the one below says; High on a hillside a villager puffs away peacefully on an unusual pipe.





Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.






My PTSD assistance dog, Lynne, and I have written a book about how she helps me with my military Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, and depression. I talk about my time in the QAs and the coping strategies I now use to be in my best health.

Along the way, I have had help from various military charities, such as Help for Heroes and The Not Forgotten Association and royalties from this book will go to them and other charities like Bravehound, who paired me with my four-legged best friend.

I talk openly about the death of my son by suicide and the help I got from psychotherapy and counselling and grief charities like The Compassionate Friends.

The author, Damien Lewis, said of Lynne:

"A powerful account of what one dog means to one man on his road to recovery. Both heart-warming and life-affirming. Bravo Chris and Lynne. Bravo Bravehound."

Download.

Buy the Paperback.



This beautiful QARANC Poppy Pin Badge is available from the Royal British Legion Poppy Shop.




For those searching military records, for information on a former nurse of the QAIMNS, QARANC, Royal Red Cross, VAD and other nursing organisations or other military Corps and Regiments, please try Genes Reunited where you can search for ancestors from military records, census, birth, marriages and death certificates as well as over 673 million family trees. At GenesReunited it is free to build your family tree online and is one of the quickest and easiest ways to discover your family history and accessing army service records.

More Information.




Another genealogy website which gives you access to military records and allows you to build a family tree is Find My Past which has a free trial.








In the British military cantonment at Dharan in eastern Nepal there is a military hospital. It started as a small hospital for Gurkha personnel. Later it extended its care to former Gurkhas and their families and now helps thousands of Nepalese sufferers spread throughout the hills of the area.

The BMH Dharan now has 75 beds and takes 1750 in-patients annually. About 350 babies are born there each year and its out-patient attendance tops the staggering annual figure of 30,000.

Tuberculosis, a disease which has been effectively beaten in Britain only in this century, is still the major scourge of the people of Nepal. The Nepalese Government is carrying out a mass vaccination programme for children and the British doctors are assisting in every way they can. For the ex-Gurkha soldier and his family, the hospital offers every possible aid when TB strikes. Most are treated as out-patients and travel down to Dharan for their tablets. Many walk for days to the hospital and are given medical supplies for three-month periods.

Malnutrition, leprosy and many strange and rare diseases are brought to Dharan. All the hospital's five doctors have to be jacks of all trades. Major Alan Burge, an ear, nose and throat specialist acting as a holiday relief, was astonished by the variety of cases he saw during his short stay. "I haven't been below the collarbone for years, except socially," he quipped. "Yet here I may at any time be called upon to carry out a Caesarean."

Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Mummery, senior medical officer, acts as part-time anaesthetist, as well as a general practitioner. He told SOLDIER: "The wide experience we get repays us for the hard work we have to put in treating such a large number of people. We get a great deal of satisfaction doing a little to help the people of Nepal."

The 'village clinic' held each Tuesday is an unforgettable sight to Western eyes. As many as 200 people of all ages and from every direction gather outside the camp perimeter. Some have been carried down in litters, others on people's backs - there are no roads leading from the rugged hills where they live.

At the stroke of ten a Nepalese medical assistant appears. He admits those who already have appointments and then moves through the remainder giving admission papers to those who seem to be in the greatest need of medical attention. Usually some have to be turned away - the clinic just cannot cope with the vast numbers. Harsh though this may seem, it is one of the secrets of the success of the Dharan hospital. As Colonel Mummery says: "We work at a bed occupancy rate of 90 per cent. We have been very careful not to put up extra beds and have people sleeping in the corridors, because this will lower standards. What we can do for the people of this country is to have a hospital run to United Kingdom standards."





Each year a course is held at the hospital which will benefit many different parts of the Himalayan kingdom. Gurkha soldiers who are leaving the Army go to Dharan for a nine-month medical assistants' training course, part of the Overseas Development Ministry's Gurkha reintegration scheme. Last year, out of 36 men taking the course, 35 passed. One or two may stay to work at the hospital, others go to Gurkha welfare centres. But the majority, once they have their medical training, are able to work for the Nepalese government, in disease control or family planning projects, or can set up their own dispensaries in their home areas.



Captain Joan Thornley QARANC with a premature baby in an incubator.

Even the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers workshop at Dharan is drawn into the medical aid field. Distance is the great problem in Nepal and many patients who are carried into the hospital after snake bites and falls have serious infections and gangrene when they arrive - the only remedy being amputation.

When the amputee is ready for an artificial limb, Sergeant Andrew Jepperson, Royal Army Medical Corps, measures the stump and makes a plaster cast. The final mould is taken to the workshops where there is a large store of artificial arms and legs shipped out from Roehampton Hospital in England.

The limb which is the nearest fit is selected and minor adaptations are made in the workshops. Later the patient returns for a fitting at the workshops and the hospital gives its final seal of approval. This is done for all patients who have had amputations regardless of whether they are Gurkha pensioners or not.

One emergency which occurred during SOLDIER's visit vividly illustrates the teamwork and dedication which goes into the medical work at Dharan. A teenage boy being operated on was losing blood at a rapid rate and needed transfusions. Stocks of blood at the hospital are limited. But after a few phone calls British officers, wives and nursing staff donated blood which saved the boy's life. He was an orphan who had a connection with the Brigade of Gurkhas.



Pictured is Sergeant Andrew Jepperson and workshop manager Bhimbahadur Limbu.

Read more about the history and see more photos of BMH Nepal.





Former Royal Air Force Regiment Gunner Jason Harper witnesses a foreign jet fly over his Aberdeenshire home. It is spilling a strange yellow smoke. Minutes later, his wife, Pippa, telephones him, shouting that she needs him. They then get cut off. He sets straight out, unprepared for the nightmare that unfolds during his journey. Everyone seems to want to kill him.

Along the way, he pairs up with fellow survivor Imogen. But she enjoys killing the living dead far too much. Will she kill Jason in her blood thirst? Or will she hinder his journey through this zombie filled dystopian landscape to find his pregnant wife?

The Fence is the first in this series of post-apocalyptic military survival thrillers from the torturous mind of former British army nurse, now horror and science fiction novel writer, C.G. Buswell.

Download Now.

Buy the Paperback.


If you would like to contribute to this page, suggest changes or inclusions to this website or would like to send me a photograph then please e-mail me.










Free Book.
The death of the Brotherhood will be avenged.
RAF gunner Jason Harper and a team of Special Air Service operators are enraged after the death of their brothers by a terrorist drone strike. They fly into south-eastern Yemen on a Black-op mission to gather intelligence and avenge the death of their comrades.
Can they infiltrate the Al-Queda insurgents' camp, stay undetected, and call down their own drone missile strike and get home safely?
Will they all survive to fight another day?
Operation Wrath is a free, fast-paced adventure prequel to the non-stop action The Fence series by military veteran author C.G. Buswell.
Download for free on any device and read today.





This website is not affiliated or endorsed by The Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC) or the Ministry of Defence.