Memories of a Roving Researcher

Denise Magauran, former Chief Surgeon at the Jerusalem Hospital, returns voluntarily on an annual basis.  She was recently a Consultant on the Epidemiology Research project.  Here are some of her thoughts:

“In Beitounia, near Ramallah, I examined the eyes of a Haj and his wife.  Afterwards, his wife gave us coffee and, as we were talking in their garden, I said how pretty she was.  She then went into her house and came back with two brown paper parcels and said, ‘these are for you’.  I opened them and they were two beautiful Palestinian dresses.  It was difficult, but I decided to accept one yellow dress with olive embroidery.  I put it on and everyone was delighted so I wore it for the rest of the day.  I also wore it to our end of research BBQ party.

Outside Jerusalem, in Ram, we were in the home of one lady, about to examine her.  We got out our rope in order to measure the correct distance from which to test her eyes, when she became alarmed and thought we were going to tie her up.   Once we’d explained, she ended up having a good, hearty laugh!

Also in Ram, I saw a lady of 100 years old. She had good sight and hearing. In her home, there was a baby in a supermarket trolley.  He had been naughty and it was the best place to put him!  On another occasion we were seeing men in a café.  We were given carrot juice and told by the owner to tell the men that carrots were good for their eyes!

During the research I lost weight – it was very hot and we were very active.  On one day we had four coffees, four teas, fresh cucumbers and a huge tray filled with green beans. Some of the patients had arrived on a tractor from their land and brought some of their produce. 

I would like to say how much I appreciated the amazing hospitality of the Palestinians during our research. Hopefully the future will bring peace to all! These people are so poor and yet so generous. We need to do our utmost to raise money to make sure they have the healthcare required.”

Denise M Magauran
Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon FRCS FRCOphth

01 September 2008