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Show Since then both hospital and equipment have been steadily improved. It is only this year that a sanatorium for tubercular patients was opened, the only one in Shantung. Only last year improvements were made in the operating wing, laboratory, pharmacy, and children's ward; and only two weeks ago a new electric light plant was put into use supplying the whole compound with the joy of good lights. A school of nursing, founded in 1915, with its four-year course based on the best western nursing practice, supplies the nursing needs of the hospital as well as sending graduates out to fill positions in other hospitals. Other schools in China train pharmacists, laboratory technicians, and X-ray technicians who are employed by the hospital. Foreign doctors mostly have the supervision. Thus there is a foundation for the practice of modern medicine. This should not give the impression that everything has always worked smoothly. It took a long time to get the confidence of the people and to convince them that with our kind of treatment more can be accomplished than with the old Chinese methods. Certainly it shows success, that this hospital is always busy, but that is only comparative because the hospital, though it serves a population of nearly five million, still seems to be sufficient, whereas in a western country forty or more hospitals would be needed for such a population. The New Testament tells us about "divers diseases" in ancient times. That's what we have in Tehchow, largely due to the poverty and ignorance of the people. And a doctor in a country hospital gets the impression that "divers diseases" are still more diverse because he is forced to do all kinds of medical work and is not able to specialize. The hospital of course doesn't care whether the patient who comes is a Christian or not and it doesn't make any difference to which political camp he belongs or whether he can pay the hospital fees. The hospital's aim is to help, and even if the patient has no money there are - besides the medical reason - two moral advantages: to spread confidence and to show not with words but with facts that willingness to help is a force. Just recently we had three little boys whose histories paint the need for help in most lively colours and admonish the administration that they spare no effort to help as much as possible. One was a beggar boy who in wandering from one court to another for some food got in conflict with a big dog that took no pity on the little fellow but put his arm in such condition that we worked six weeks to get him out of bed again. The second was one of those numerous kids who make their poor living gathering coal out of the dross along the railway lines. These children do this year after year and have no fear of the trains passing by. Thus the boy, who later on became a sort of hospital mascot, was too careless one day and the train got his leg and crushed it. The third boy was sent out by his parents to look for his own food |