INSTITUTIONS

A missionary, after all

ASHA KRISHNAKUMAR

IN 1889, 16-year-old Ida Sophia Scudder, who had just finished school, set out from Boston in the United States to Vellore to nurse her ailing mother. Her father, a doctor, had been with her mother for more than 10 years. He was engaged in missionary wor k. Ida had long decided that she would not take up missionary work. She planned to return to the U.S. as soon as her mother recovered.

Ida's resolve broke one night when three men sought her help. Their wives were in labour and the local local mid-wives were unable to help in the "complicated cases". Social and religious taboos prevented them from seeking her father's help. The women di ed that night, and this affected Ida deeply. She realised how badly the women of Vellore needed a woman doctor.

Ida went back to the U.S. in 1890 to study medicine. She was one of the first women to be admitted to the Cornell Medical School. After her final examinations, she was told by the Dutch Reformed Church to raise $8,000 to set up a clinic for women in Vell ore - a job that was easier said than done.

K. PICHUMANI

A frustrated Ida had almost given up her plan to set up a clinic in Vellore when a friend suggested that she approach Miss Taber, who lived a few blocks away for help. The next day Ida went to Miss Taber's house where she met Schell, Taber's brother-in-l aw. Ida explained to Taber the miserable condition of women in India and how badly they needed a hospital.

The next day Schell sent her a note expressing his wish to meet her. When an anxious Ida met him that afternoon, Schell asked her if she was capable of running a clinic all by herself. To this, Ida merely asked him to check her credentials. Schell, who h ad already done that, handed her a cheque for $10,000 and asked her to name the hospital after Mary Taber Schell, his late wife.

Ida returned to Vellore in 1900, and within two years converted her father's house into the 40-bed Mary Taber Schell Hospital. It now houses the CMC's Eye Hospital.

Until her death in 1960, Ida spent her life for the women and children of Vellore and its surrounding areas. She helped whoever came to CMC seeking medical assistance.