MARY JOHNSTON HOSPITAL
AND THE SCHOOL OF NURSING

As is so often the case, an institution is "the lengthened shadow" of a man or woman. Thus it is with Mary Johnston Hospital, which grew from twenty-eight years of dedicated labor by Dr. Rebecca Parish, the first woman physician to practice in the Philippines. Recalling her arrival in Manila she wrote:

cholera stalked the land...lepers walked around...tuberculosis broke homes.. .smallpox ravished whole villages 'until not an eye remained open to weep for the dead'...dysenteries rampant... plague took full toll...elephantiasis...strange new diseases not in textbooks... bad nutrition... babies born in little cubicles on the walls of large livery stables... 66 per cent infant mortality.. .sexton, north cemetery, dug 20 baby graves each morning knowing he would need all... fire, flood, typhoon, locusts, famine, impure water, lack of sanitation.¹²⁰

Following in the steps of the Great Physician, Dr. Parish on December 10, 1906, founded the Dispensaria Betania on the first floor of the Women's Bible School on Rizal Avenue. She had, in the words of her diary, a few drugs, a good desk, an enameled bowl, a pitcher with most of the enamel off, and a chair with one front leg awry...10 bamboo cots for emergency cases...board at 10 cents a day...dental clinic, milk station with daily feeding,; for as many as 90 babies.. .began training girls...start of nurses training (3 girls)...¹²¹ The Dispensary grew into a Hospital when, in 1908, the missionary wife of Mr. D. S. B. Johnston died and he gave $12,500 as a memorial for her. No sooner was the hospital completed than a cholera epidemic hit the city, and from that time to this, its facilities have been extensively used for the work of the Kingdom in the Philippines. Originally built by Manila Bay, its patients came not only from the city, but also by banca from up and down the coast of Luzon and the other islands. They came from everywhere...with all kinds of ailments... and they were treated. As Dr. Parish said, "No one was ever refused for lack of money. The open sesame was 'Maysakit po ako.' (I am sick)"¹²²

The services of Mary Johnston have been many: public health, child feeding, maternity work, nurses training school, outpatient clinic, crippled children's ward, etc. The Nurses' School has been associated with the hospital since its beginning; it graduated its first class in 1911. Since 1953, it has been a part of Philippine Christian Colleges, still however, bearing the name, Mary Johnston School of Nursing,¹²³ and developing under the leadership of its dean, Miss Librada Javalera.

During the liberation of Manila, the hospital was destroyed, with only a few concrete pillars left standing. Yet no sooner was the war over than a health center and charity clinic were opened in tiny, cramped quarters, under the able directorship of Dr. Jose Catindig. In 1950, it was properly housed, with a finely-equipped 150-bed building, built through contributions from America. It has continued its services in the heart of needy Tondo, fulfilling a unique role in the medical history of the Philip- pines. It was led by its first Filipino Administrator; Dr. Gumersindo Garcia, outstanding medical doctor, religious, and civic leader, until his sudden death in 1964.


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