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Catherine Hamlin, obstetrician, died on March 18th, aged 96
產科醫(yī)師凱瑟琳·哈姆林于3月18日去世，享年96歲。
The ad in the Lancet called for a gynecologist to set up a midwifery school for nurses in Ethiopia. In the end they got two for the price of one—Catherine, who had grown up in a wealthy Sydney family, and her husband, Reg, from New Zealand. She was reminded of her homeland as soon as she saw the rugged, biblical landscape.
《柳葉刀》雜志上的廣告呼吁一名婦科醫(yī)生在埃塞俄比亞為護士建立一所助產學校。最后，兩所學校建成，只用了建一所學校的錢。凱瑟琳在悉尼一個富裕的家庭長大，她的丈夫雷格來自新西蘭。當她看到崎嶇多巖的、圣經式的風景時，她就想起了她的家鄉(xiāng)。
It looked a bit like New South Wales, with its armies of gum trees arrayed along steep hillsides as in the Blue Mountains. She liked the lemony light of early morning when she would start the day with a cup of tea on her veranda and a passage from the Bible. But in other ways it wasn't like home at all. No one was there to meet the couple when, with their six-yearold son, Richard, they stepped off the dusty flight from Djibouti, where their ship had docked. The telegram announcing their arrival in Addis Ababa was not delivered until two weeks after they got there.
那里有點像新南威爾士州，就像藍山那樣，大片的桉樹排列在陡峭的山坡上。凱瑟琳喜歡那里清晨的檸檬色陽光，她在陽臺上喝杯茶，讀一段《圣經》，開始新的一天。但是在別的方面，這里和家鄉(xiāng)一點也不一樣。他們帶著6歲的兒子理查德坐船到吉布提，然后坐飛機去埃塞俄比亞。當他們走下布滿灰塵的飛機時，沒有人在那里等著他們。他們抵達亞的斯亞貝巴的電報直到抵達兩周后才發(fā)出。
Ethiopia had more pressing needs too, it turned out, than either midwifery or teaching. Each day, when the hospital gates swung open, she found them there, the young women who believed she might be their last hope. Some had been carried for hundreds of kilometres on the back of their fathers or mothers, others had spent years saving for the bus fare. One arrived at night and, finding the gate shut, tried to hang herself. In the morning the guards cut her down; Dr Hamlin operated, and cured her.
事實證明，埃塞俄比亞也有比助產或教學更迫切的需求。每天，當醫(yī)院的大門打開時，凱瑟琳都會發(fā)現那些年輕的女人出現在那里，她們相信她可能是她們最后的希望。有的是被父母從幾百公里外的地方背過來的，有的是用花幾年時間攢錢買的公交車票過來的。有個人是晚上到的，發(fā)現大門沒開后，她就上吊了。到了早晨，警衛(wèi)救了她。哈姆林醫(yī)生給她做了手術，治好了她的病。
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