Himalayan Hospitals

I have been meaning to read this a good long time, but ambition is required to tackle a large book like this. It is only a bit under 500 pages, but is also large format, so lots of words on each page! I shouldn't have been concerned - it is a great read, uncomplicated and interesting all the way through. I do seem to have somehow gone Hillary-book mad lately for some reason...

After Hillary had climbed Everest, he returned to Nepal a number of times to make additional climbs, but he had made a real connection to the Sherpa people, and often discussed with them the best way he could help them. Almost every time they were asked, they considered a school to educate their children was a priority. Hillary set up a charitable trust, and fund raised to build a number of schools before casting his net a bit wider, and also addressing bridges and water pipelines to raise the Sherpa standard of living.
Inevitably, health issues became obvious - the most prevalent problems being the incredibly high rates of goitre in adults and cretinism in babies, deaths giving birth and tuberculosis. A hospital was the obvious next step, and Khunde was chosen as the first location.
Again Hillary's leadership and fund raising were key to establishing this - at which time they needed to determine how to staff the hospital. Given that education was only commencing, it was obvious that it would take a considerable time to staff the hospital with Sherpa doctors, nurses etc, so the board of the trust determined that they would look for volunteer couples - one a doctor and the other to assist and/or take a teaching role at the nearby school, for a period of two years, before they would be replaced by the next pair. It took a number of these two year periods to realise that they would also need a break after a year, and a locum / cover system was set up to give the couple a fortnight or so off.
Initially all of the couples came from New Zealand, then later Canada. There were various criteria to meet to be successful - obviously medical experience, experience in childbirth (including complications) and in general health programmes, and not least some interest in living in relatively primitive conditions, at altitude and in winter Himalayan conditions. Inevitably many were climbers / mountaineers to at least some level, even if it was quite amateur.

This book tells the stories of the couples over the period of September 1966 to the final couple who ended their time at Khunde in September 2002, when the reins were handed over to Nepali staff.
Each couple is afforded a chapter, and author Mike Gill takes excerpts from letters and communications, and wraps a narrative around these, including detailed updates of the changes and progress that is made. Extensive interviews were also carried out to provide the details of the couples time in Nepal. They are often quite personal stories, anecdotes and feelings they share, there are disagreements and failings on all sides (doctors, the trust, Sherpa staff & Hillary himself) and Gill does a very good job of offering a balanced view. Accompanying the text are a lot of photographs - belonging mostly to the couples themselves, or members of the trust board who regularly visited. These are a real bonus in what is a long book - not to mention it is large format, therefore contains a lot of words in its just under 500 pages.

A second hospital was also built in Phaplu, and another health Centre in Bung, and their stories are included in parallel.

As Hillary's (first) wife Louise and his youngest daughter are sadly killed in a plane crash in 1975. This effected Hillary more than he ever let on, and it is a indication of Gill's balanced reportage that at times he shows Hillary's crotchety old man attitude towards the doctors, and makes the book at the more readable.

It is packed with interesting anecdotes, the stories of these mostly young couples finding their way in a new setting in a very different culture and environment. The difference they made was immense and it is unsurprising the affection which the Sherpa feel towards Hillary especially, but all New Zealanders as a result of the effort made over the years.

The trust continues to operate - website: https://himalayantrust.org/
This book is available from there too.

5 stars.