Luke lists a motley throng who were gathered together on the day of Pentecost: "Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians." But this group was no more cosmopolitan than the group you would find in line waiting for registration were you to drop into the White Memorial Clinic about eight o'clock any morning but Sabbath.
We send our missionaries to Africa to work for the dark races there. We send them to Japan, to China, to the Philippines, to Palestine, and to the countries of Eastern Europe. They go to Mexico, and Central and South America, in search of those who know not Christ. However, all of these countries and more are represented in any day's work in this little foreign field, the White Memorial Clinic. The largest representation from foreign communities is the Jews. Forty thousand of them live within two miles of the hospital, and an additional 6o,000 are found farther away in the city.
Mexicans are perhaps the next largest group in point of numbers. These people are not intruders from over our southern border, but are the original dwellers of this region. It is the dominant white population who are the intruders, having conquered this area in the early part of the last century. Russians, Filipinos, and Japanese are here in considerable numbers.
And a colored community of some 30,000 in the southern section of the city patronize the clinic freely. With 15o,000 patient visits from these various people every year, what a challenging opportunity is here for mission endeavor!
Not a few of these patients come to us with minor complaints which will be cared for in one or two visits. Many, however, come to our dispensary after they have spent all their substance, having "suffered many things of many physicians," and are happy to rest their cases with conscientious Christian doctors. No doubt it was such a group as we have described above that sought Christ in hope of physical restoration in the days of His earthly ministry. From its humble beginnings in 1915, when Dr. August Larson supervised its activities and did most of the work in meager improvised quarters near the railway yard, this institution has grown to be probably the second largest clinic of its kind in the West. Practically every form of medical care is available in the clinic, or through the clinic in the hospital.
The reason for the establishment of this institution was to provide clinical contacts for students of medicine. Not only is this a requirement by the medical educational authorities, but it is obvious that it would be impossible to teach medicine in a practical way without providing actual medical experience for the students. The medical students care for these patients under the immediate supervision of experienced physicians, who use these contacts as aids in the practical teaching of medicine.
In carrying out this work we feel our responsibility not only for the physical restoration of the suffering, but for the restoration of a spiritual experience, the absence of which is at times a factor in the production of disease. Plans are under way for the development of a strong evangelistic program in connection with the clinic. This work, actually done by the medical students under the direction of Elder E. Toral Seat, will provide for bringing the truth in some form to each patient.
Everyone registering for medical care in the clinic receives a personal invitation by the students to attend the public evangelistic meetings conducted each Friday evening in the hall on the hospital grounds. Our gospel literature is available at all times for the patients to read while they wait, and an exhibit of our truth-laden books is being installed in the dispensary for the convenience of visiting patients.
The work of the dispensary is under the direction of Dr. Orlyn B. Pratt, medical superintendent of the hospital. Associated with him is a group, of loyal Christian doctors and nurses. Some of these doctors are in the full-time employ of the medical school, and others are in private practice in near-by communities, contributing what time they can to the care of patients and the instruction of medical students.
Follow-up Work Not Neglected
Not only are the doctors and the nurses alert to represent properly the spirit of Christ in their medical ministrations, but a full-time worker is assigned to follow up interests and contacts developed in the clinic. With the public meetings which are now being started, it is expected that there will be many opportunities for Bible studies and other follow-up work in the homes, which will give experience to nurses and medical students.
Such a plan is in harmony with the instruction we have been given in regard to work we should do along medical lines, and an earnest effort is being put forth by those concerned to develop further this side of our medical activities here in the city of Los Angeles. The clinic had 155,335 patient visits last year, or a daily average of 501. This was a gain of 17,375 visits over the number for the previous year.
Major surgery is all cared for in the main hospital, but an idea of the volume of work may be gleaned from the fact that the Ear, Nose, and Throat Department did 525 tonsillectomies, besides 250 other surgical procedures. The Obstetrical Department cared for 1,188 deliveries during 1938, most of these in the homes of the poorer class in the near-by communities.
It is the prayer of those concerned with this work that the light kindled by the kindly services rendered in this institution may be the means of guiding many souls into paths which will lead them to that land where "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain : for the former things are passed away."
