Looking Back - Medical &Midwifery of the past
By Will Jackson
Health during the 19th and up to the firsthalf of the 20th century was a calamity in the Cayman Islands.People lived and died, some very young, a lot of them as infants;some in their teens and middle age, while yet there were manywho after being born lived to see an old age. The past generationslived only on the kind mercies of God.
Very sadly, I often think of my own littlesister and dear mother who passed on, both in only four monthsof each other. These were deaths that need not have been, exceptby the lack of a little health knowledge. They were just typhoidfever cases; many were the lives cut short by the typhoid outbreak.
You are asking me what happened to the doctorsof those times? Up until the early 1920s, I have been assuredthere was never a certified doctor stationed in Grand Cayman.The English Commissioners that were sent by the Crown did firstaid in the simple cases that went to see them.
The people relied on bush medicine to helpthem and, incidentally, there were some very good bush men throughthe Islands who knew how to help many complaints with their herbalmedicine, there were also midwives to whom great praise belong.They did their job and did it well, not only in the matter ofchildbirth but also in many cases of illness, which they foughtand starved to death for another day.
Speaking of midwives, there's been littlesaid in the media recently about midwives of the past centurybut I know for certain ladies for that clan, great in their professionwhose name I don't realize seeing in print. Let me first drawattention to two greats of their time right in the capital, GeorgeTown, where they lived and worked, to which many living adultsof today owe their early existence.
I may speak of Mrs. Jessie Piercy whosedeliveries count over one hundred, I have been told by her latelydeceased daughter Mrs. Grace Bush. In those days a midwife stayedon with a new mother a week or more, depending on the state ofthe mother's health. My own wife praises the ability of Mrs. Piercyfor her survival. Oh yes, one should never forget Miss Clara Edenwho was a pro in the nursing and delivery business, one who Iknew well and admired. These ladies could obtain a little medicinein George Town if they needed help, good for them but in a farmore remote and lone position were a couple of ladies who workedin East End during those wild days.
There were three of them working the Districtsin those days. Mrs. Elnora Conolly was looked up to as head ofthe midwives and she advised Miss Lishma McLean and Mrs. SarahMcLaughlin when it became necessary. These ladies, I have beentold, never experienced the loss of a single mother during theirworking career.
Sure a few children died for various reasons.I know of one incident where two of them fought a delivery inEast End for more than 48 hours, keeping the mother alive untilDr. Horter got there and stayed another 24 hours delivering twins;both mother and babies were saved. The doctor commended the twomidwives most highly for their skills.
Now medical personnel itself was another problem in those dayswith no doctor in the early years of settlement and then, in lateryears, only one doctor for the entire population. Then with noautomotive transportation to the outlying districts, imagine ifyou may, what it must have been like to maintain one's health.
In the early 1920s, a doctor Overton enteredthe medical field in Grand Cayman having his abode in George Town.That was fine for those parts but near impossible to meet theneeds of a great amount of people living in the country who tooksick and had no choice other than to stare death in the face andaccept the result. When the coastal weather held good, peoplenot seriously ill were taken in large canoes to George Town, somemade it back home alive, while others returned in a wooden box.
Dr. Overton worked hard to do his best tohelp those who sought him out, but everybody couldn't go to seehim, neither could he help everyone who needed help. A littlefour bed abandoned house was offered to be a makeshift hospitaland was many times utilized as such. Meanwhile, the midwives invarious parts, along with the herbal men, did miracles in helpingthe many unfortunate in their parts. Well, there weren't thatmany people like there are now. So, the death rate didn't seemto be so great.
Cancer, the great killer of today, didn'tseem to be very well known fifty to a hundred years ago. Heartproblems, coupled with old age were the prevailing factor. Whena person died after 70 years of age, it was mostly said he diedof old age. In fact, 70 years of age seemed to have had greaterdisabilities than do 80 years today.
In the mid thirties, Dr. Overton resignedhis task in the Island and an English doctor by the name of Hortertook over the practice. Dr. Horter was a fine man one who exerciseda lot of patience and love with the ill ones but his physicalproblem was that he was real deaf. By the time Dr. Horter tookup practice, automotive roads were connecting East End and NorthSide with George Town making it easier for him to serve the entireIsland than it had been for his predecessor.
Although he never owned a car or drove oneyet, he tried to make it possible to go wherever he was called.It was not strange for him to spend many hours with a patient;sometimes he even remained on duty all night.
Dr. Horter worked all through the tryingtimes of World War II, his task was to examine the men for theTrinidad navy as well as those of the Home Guard. He was a Caymaniandoctor in that he knew their complaints better than any beforehim. He did no surgeries, which was a great need in those parts.One Escoffrey from Jamaica came after the war and performed surgeryon all who requested.
Then came one Dr. Caffrecay a Seventh DayAdventist from Canada and did a great job while he remained here.By the early 1950s, the health picture took a change when a littlemodern hospital came into being and was staffed with a coupleof doctors and nurses. Today, on the same site stands a new andmodern well-staffed and well-equipped hospital to meet the needsof the people for years to come.
The Midwives all rest in peace, their jobswell done. May their souls find favour in the great judgment day!