Medical Visits
Soon after beginning their Sunday visits to hold services in the diaspora villages in Transylvania, the students of the Reformed Theological Seminary discovered that many of the people there had no real medical care at all. This shocked them and they brought it to the attention of Dr. Katalina Bakos, the doctor who cares for them at the school. With her; and with our promise of support, they then devised a plan to go out into the villages and examine the needs of these people, most of whom are elderly, with all the ailments that tend to multiply with advanced years. The visits began in two villages, Oroszfája and Komlód, far back in the hills along roads that are very difficult to travel.
For the villagers those first visits were like festivities. Everyone was invited, not just members of the churches, but Romanians and Gypsies as well. And practically everyone came, whether they were ill or not. The attention was too good to miss. And while they waited they visited, often lingering long after their examinations were over. And their needs varied, from a woman who was depressed because her chicken had died, to those who were so ill they could hardly make it to the place where examinations were taking place. And, in fact, there were some who couldn’t come at all, and had to be visited in their homes. But each was dealt with in turn; and the visits have continued ever since, while others have been started in still other villages as well.
Through this all, however, most striking has been the kindness and partience with which Dr. Bakos treats everyone who comes. Her instruments at the start were llimited to the few she could afford to purchase; and her records are kept in longhand and carefully filed to be taken along on the next visit. But always she remains very focused, not only in examinating each patient, but in listening to their storiess as she looks for indications of what problems may effect their condition. And these problems are many. Nearly all suffer from high blood pressure and many from diabetes, while others have wounds from heavy handwork in the fields, ulcerated sores that do not heal, etc..
Perhaps one of the most grievous problems of all is that of alcohoism. These people live alone in their small isolated villages with few distractions and no entertainment to speak of. But they are able to make alcholic bevereges from the crops they grow, with no real cost on their part. And the result is that, especially in the long winter nights as they huddle in the few rooms they are able to heat and with little light, the easy thing to do to get their minds off their misery is to drink. This readily leads to addiction with all of the distructive effects it inevitably brings to them that do, as it falls to her to try to explain.
These visits are not easy.
To begin with, the ride out is punishing. The roads are in extremely bad condition. Once out of the city, one moves to secondary roads that are paved but in poor repair. It does not last long, however, before the road surfaces turn to crushed rock, so bumpy that passengers become road sick as they ride. And from there on they only become worse, finally turning to plain dirt, which when it rains are pure mud, and when dry are left with deep ruts suited only for horse and oxen carts.
Last fall we took Dr. J.G.Den Hartog with us on one of these visits. He brought with him a rebuilt EKG unit that Dr. Bakos had requested. One of our purposes in bringing him with was to get his opinion as to what additional equipment she needed most; and his answer was very brief, a four-wheel drive vehicle to get to the villages where she has to go. This we took seriously, and since then have been able to raise the funds to purchase one, leaving us now free to focus one the medical aspects of the program as it grows.
But the visits themselves are not the end of the matter. The doctor can’t simply give prescriptions to her patients, for there is no place out there to fill them. Rather, when she returns to the city, it falls to her, to go to the pharmacy and purchase the needed medications for each of her over 150 village patients, all the while watching the cost carefully to keep it from going beyond the limited budget we have been able to supply. On the average the cost for each of per patients after each visit has been running about $3.50, of which the doctor is able to keep about 40¢ for herself.
And still there is more. Once the medicine has been purchased, Dr. Bakos takes it home and carefully packages and labels it to be taken back on her next visit and distributed to the patients, along with verbal instructions and little notes telling them how it is to be used.
The whole thing is for her a grueling pace , and one wonders at her willingness to do it. But to all appearances her greatest regret is the lack of means to go out more often and to more villages. The days are often long, often continuing until sunset; but her chief reward is to be able this Christian service to her people who have suffered so much in their lives.
And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
Luke 10:8,9