Page 328 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

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Niicuicrnn akahia

mice." We arc very lucky when the complaint is one lhai will get well ;
quickly hy treatment. For cases as tuberculosis and heart disease, requir­
ing long- patient care, there is practically no chance of the patient getting i
it. So soon as they feel better they are up and away. < )ccasionally there «
i.s an exception, as our little Abel el Kasai, a two-year-old, now with us 1
almost two months and at last on his way to recovery from a bad tubercular i !
infection in the -left thigh. They are IJedus, and his people from the
beginning have said, "Do what is needed. We will do all that you say."
And they have done so, their confidence never wavering. Now he is
beginning to walk again and they are very happy. At one point the poor
old grandmother told us they had no money for food. I spoke to the
man, a rather nice man, nut of the irresponsible type at all, and he repri­
manded the poor old lady, but she, brave soul, came after and told me
earnestly that the man was shy to take help, but they did need, so I in-

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THIS NI0W HOSPITAL l'OU WOMEN AND CIIILIJKKN i.N UAIIUAIN

>i>trd on the man taking five rupees and assured him that since I was a j.
«!«ictor it was not a shame for him to borrow that much. When the boy
leaves he will in all probability pay that back, and give a little more if he '
|m.v*ibly can.
The Kedus, once they decide to come to us, are certainly the best
patients. Ilya, with her two-year-old son, Abd el Kuhnian, and his uncle,
and another lad of nine years arrived from somewhere in the interior of
Arabia. Ilya had an abdomen swollen beyond recognition—as a matter i;
of tact filled with fluid, and they had brought her for operation. I low-
ivcr. her trouble needed medical treatment and yielded to it most promptly.
They stayed a long time, the uncle looking after the sick woman and the
>iek baby most devotedly and uncomplainingly, even when he caught the .*
grippe himself and felt pretty badly. The two-year-uM boy was a mere :
Tdelon, still nursing his mother and weighing hardly sixteen pounds. •:
Dana took charge of this baby and give him oil rubs and sun treatment
and a diet suitable for him, and by patient care finally got the baby to
l.M.k more human and begin to gain weight. The uncle gave the hospital
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