During the time we were engaged in general medical and surgical practice in Persia, from the year 1925 till 1934, when we returned to our homeland, it was abundantly demonstrated that one of the greatest needs of the Persian people was the services of trained eye doctors. During that last furlough it was our primary aim to secure this training, and before returning we obtained a special qualification for this work. Since our return to Persia the plans conceived at that time have brought forth much fruit.
When we bade farewell to our division brethren, they gave us their blessing—but nothing else—on our new project of opening a clinic exclusively for the treatment of diseases of the eye ; they had no funds whatever for any such new work in our Persian mission. However, the world is full of money if one knows where to look for it. The clinic was opened and has never lacked funds from that day to this. On the contrary, it has amassed a sum for future expansion which exceeds our fondest dreams, and we hope to invest in better equipment and other conveniences as soon as the trade routes are open once more.
The Lord always makes provision in advance for His work and His servants ; so when our Tabriz mission compound was vacated by its former occupant, we decided to move into Tabriz, where we had spent the first three years of service in Persia and had at that time acquired the Turki tongue spoken in north Persia and also a government permit to practice medicine there. The city is large, with a wide district of small towns -and villages on all sides. It is also on the borders of the Caucasus and Turkey, and is the nearest center for Kurdistan, so that its bazaars are crowded with a motley throng clad in multicolored costumes and speaking tongues as diverse as those recounted in the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost.
We arrived in this city in the spring of 1939 and were comfortably settled before the war began.
This was fortunate, since movements of Europeans after that date were viewed with suspicion, especially in north Persia; and here we have remained in spite of the alarms and rumors of war raging not far from our borders. In 1942 it seemed that all Europeans would be leaving this district; but as we believed the invader would be turned back, we remained at work, and our faith has been justified, for now there is no more talk of evacuation, and our work during this very period prospered more than at any other time. There are two reasons for this prosperity: First, other oculists have retired from this district, leaving the entire field almost wholly to our clinic; and second, the country people have never had so much money in their pockets as during the past year and have never spent it so freely as they do now.
This part of the world might be called an oculist's paradise, so widespread are diseases of the eye. It is computed that about eighty-five per cent of the village people are infected with trachoma during their lives, and our outpatient work is largely occupied with the treatment of this malady and its complications. Painstaking care is rewarded with good results, and we have the satisfaction of knowing that we have saved many hundreds of boys and girls from blindness in afterlife by our timely intervention. The complications require surgical attention, and we perform hundreds of operations to correct the deformities of eyelids and eyelashes ,which cause lifelong disability, pain, and blindness in adults. These patients are most grateful for relief after years of constant suffering.
A large number of elderly people develop cataract, and of this class we have a constant stream of patients passing through our hands. The operation for cataract is not lightly undertaken, even in the West ; and in the East, where one rarely encounters a clean eye, the risks are still greater. In view of this we are very happy that the results of cataract operations in our clinic are over ninety per cent successful. We have two rooms for these patients, with comfortable beds, and we have facilities for sterilizing all that is needed for operations. The clinic also has a darkroom and all the facilities for examination of the eyes and ordering of spectacles, with constant electric light, which are not frequently found in this part of the world.
Some of the cases we see would move the hardest heart to pity. Recently a man with cataracts in both eyes came walking from a town almost a hundred miles away, led by his young son, as he himself was quite blind. Unfortunately we had no room just then, but promised him the first chance of a place. However, he walked all the way home and returned after three weeks, as he was too poor to live in the city for that length of time. Happily, we were able to remove both cataracts at the same time, and he went on his way rejoicing.
Another man borrowed a donkey and brought his two children, a young boy and a girl, one hundred and forty miles, from a village near the Russian border, for operations on their eyes. They both had congenital cataracts which we were able to cure.
Unfortunately, many persons, especially those with glaucoma, reach us too late for any effective treatment, but even these persons appreciate the advice that we give, and know that in our clinic they will be told the real truth, and that neither their time nor their money will be wasted on quackery or ineffective treatment. Small children only a few months old are often brought with one eye or both eyes entirely ruined by some infection occurring at birth or during the course of diseases like smallpox, and these are our most pathetic cases, for it is humanly impossible to help them. We should like to see a blind school opened for such cases, if properly qualified persons could be found to give their lives for a truly Christian service.
Our local evangelist attends the clinic each morning, sits in the waiting room, and talks to all and sundry, giving out tracts and Bible portions, explaining Bible pictures, and answering questions to the best of his ability.
My wife and I never regret having come here. We enjoy our work and are glad to do it. We wish we could do more, for there is too much for two pairs of hands. If other helpers were forthcoming there is enough work in this district to keep a special eye hospital full all the time. —H.E. Hargreaves, M.D., Australasian Record, Nov. 6, 1944.
