Newspaper Article 1961 – Nurse in Korea dreads winter fires

Nurse in Korea dreads winter fires

Winter means fire in the towns and villages of South Korea, according to former Hastings Memorial Hospital nurse, Sister E. I. Leipst, Korean representative of the Save the Children Fund.

“I dread winter – not for my own discomfort, but for the tragedies it produces,” she said in a newsletter to the Fund.

“The people use candles and you can imagine what this is like where there are hundreds of dry wooden and straw dwellings.

“Each week there are large fires.

“In Pusan, South Korea’s southern port, 6000 people are homeless after a recent blaze. Many children died,” she said.

Sister Leipst was sent to South Korea last June as a representative of the Fund. She is stationed at the Masan Hospital.

Heaters needed

In a letter to Mrs W. A. Whitlock, Havelock North, secretary of the Fund, Sister Leipst said heaters were urgently needed at the hospital.

“It’s just like a freezing chamber in winter,” she said.

“We need linoleum for the new wing, too. The floor is all concrete and hasn’t been made smooth. Linoleum will cast [cost] about £350.

The state of the roads in South Korea caused Sister Leipst some concern until she obtained a Land Rover some months ago.

“The people love pulling up the roads, but they never put back what they pull out. Ditches and mounds are everywhere.”

The space at the rear of the vehicle has been converted into a clinic. Here, Sister Leipst treats her patients at different centres all over the country.

Sister Leipst and Dr. Hatcher, a woman doctor attached to Masan Hospital, made a journey to Kyong Yu, the ancient capital of Korea.

It is about 100 miles from Masan.

“We stayed at the Bulgookoa Hotel, next to the Buddhist temple,” she wrote.

“On Sunday morning we rose at 4 o’clock and climbed a mountain where the Buddha can be seen in a cave as the sun rises.”

“The Buddha is 12ft high. It is carved in stone. The rising sun shines on it for about 15 minutes and lights the whole cave.”

In her letter, Sister Leipst also mentioned the visit of a former mayoress of Hastings, Mrs W. E. Bate and her daughter Alison.

Photo caption – Sister Leipst, former Hastings nurse now in South Korea, talks to the school teacher of the leper colony at Snang Aiwan, Mr Kim Tae Kun. New Zealand donations provided the seats and desks in the schoolroom.