State of Medical Care in Mae Sariang in 1984

 

Kim Brown working with a patient at the Mae
Sariang Christian Hospital-1986

In the USA we take roads for granted. My grandparents lived in a very rural area on gravel roads but at least the roads were smoothed, maintained and passable all year. Medical care for my grandparents was available in a small hospital within a half hour. Currently, small rural hospitals across the US are closing but even with that Google says, “The top 25% of rural residents travel 34 minutes or more for basic hospital access.” It also says that EMS services might take 20 – 40 minutes longer than what would be found in urban and suburban areas. That’s not very good in an emergency where every minute counts, but at least it is something.

Taking a break on the trail after a rain with the Mobile
Clinic team from theMae Sariang Christian
Hospital in 1989

The country side outside of Mae Sariang was beyond rural. It was downright remote. The mountains
and valleys that surrounded the town would compare to West Virginia’s and Virginia’s Appalachian areas but maybe from several generations ago. Many of the villages we visited had no roads reaching them at all. Pre-trip planning always involved discussion of how far our 4wheel drive truck could go. Do we need tire chains? Is it too risky? Should we go at all? Should we take a motorcycle instead of the truck? Are there long tail boats that can take us part of the way? If we’re walking, how many hours? If we’re bringing agricultural or medical supplies, do we need to recruit villagers to help carry the load? Should we hire elephants to carry things?

Staff at the Christian hospital sometimes told us of patients being brought to the hospital. At times, the trip might have taken 2-3 days with the patient being carried by family members up and down rough mountain trails before finally coming to the road where they might find a ride. By the time the patient actually reached the hospital, their problem was too far advanced. The hospital staff could only stand by and watch the patient die.

Kay Dee from the Mae Sariang Christian
Hospital Mobile Clinic team weighing 
children in Oh Loh Tha Village-1985

Why did the family wait until it was too late? It is easy to understand. A person in a remote village might start feeling bad. Is it a mild bellyache? A touch of the flu? Will it be gone in a couple days? Or is it something that will keep getting worse and be completely debilitating? In any case, climbing mountains on jungle paths and beginning a trip that will take days is the last thing even a mildly sick person wants to do let alone someone that is deathly ill. So, they wait until they’re sure there is real problem and sometimes they would wait too long. EMS? There was no such thing.

Phue Rue Khee is a village in the Om Koi area of Chiang Mai Province. There was a dry season road that reached the village though it was several hours of a very rough ride after the pavement ended. On one visit, on the last night we were there, I got word that someone wanted a ride to the small hospital in Om Koi. We almost always would pick up and drop off riders wherever we went so I was glad to agree. The next morning as we said good-bye, a young mom came with her baby. She was the one looking for the ride to the doctor. One look at the nearly lifeless baby was enough to see this child was not going to live long. He hardly moved at all. I’d had no idea the request for the ride was urgent, but we began to hustle up and get on the road. I was praying the whole way, the child would make the trip and Praise God, he did. Mother and child eventually were both fine. On a later visit to Phue Rue Khee, she thanked me by giving me a shoulder bag and made sure I saw the now healthy baby was alive and well. Had I not happened to be there on that particular day, I’m sure that baby would not have lasted
any longer.

Mother from Phue Rue Khee Village with her
now healthy baby in 1989

Thra Bae Lay was the evangelist based in the village of Mae Khu Tha along the Mae Ngow River south of Mae Sariang. When visiting, I would usually stay at his house and he was usually our main host. He had a nice young family and an exceptionally cute 5 year old daughter. I was early in my Karen language study so couldn’t converse all that well with the family but I always enjoyed visiting there and enjoyed the contented family atmosphere. One day though, I got word that Thra Bae Lay’s exceptionally cute 5 year old daughter had died of a sudden case of diarrhea. This disturbed me greatly. It was around 1985-86. Modern medicine had advanced to the point people in the US hardly ever die from diarrhea. Why did she have to die?

Another aspect of the lack of medical care was opium addiction. I don’t have any official numbers but I was told that one reason people became addicted to opium was that a person would be in severe pain from an injury or illness. Even today morphine, an opium derivative, is know as one of the most effective (though very addictive) pain relievers. Opium, often grown in Thailand, was readily available and likewise known as the best pain reliever. Desperate for pain relief, a person might start using opium only to be addicted before the injury or illness healed.

Thra Bae Lay at home in Mae Khu Tha 
Village. His daughter seen standing here
died of diarrhea soon after this photo - 1985 

So, the Mae Sariang Christian Hospital played a critical role in making medical care available where there had been none. In addition to care given at the hospital, mobile clinics took basic care out to remote villages on a regular basis. The mobile clinics often coordinated visits with agricultural workers, evangelists and education workers. Countless lives were saved, lives improved, health improved, and the Gospel was made known in word and deed. To me, it looked like “holistic missions” and we were glad to be a part of it all.

Since the 1980s, Thailand has been building roads in remote areas of the country and gradually expanding medical facilities. A kind of national medical insurance has also been instituted making medical care more affordable as well. So the situation has improved, but still, getting access to health care is not always easy or practical in the more remote areas of Thailand.