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Mahim Causeway Hospital.
GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL NO. 17.
The Mahirn Causeway Hospital was built on the seashore north of Mahim
Fort, a house west of the Fort having been rented for the nursing staff.
The hospital contained three wards, nominally of ten beds each, but capable of
holding sixteen beds each if required to do so. It was also provided with the
usual outdoor accommodation of a two-section hospital, including two rows of segre-
gation huts for the relations of patients and a sub-divisional office. Adjoining the
hospital was a temporary barrack for accommodating a detachment of infantry
posted there for the purpose of providing men for search and Causeway guard work,
which incidentally proved useful as a guard to the hospital.
The Staff consisted of one Medical Officer, two hospital assistants, one clerk,
one compounder, three Sisters, four assistant nurses, eight ward orderlies, two police
ramosis, and an ample menial staff as detailed in the attached tabular summary.
The visiting Medical Officer was Dr. B. A. Oliviera, a Justice of the Peace, who,
having preferred hospital to search work, gave his valuable services gratuitously
during the whole period the hospital was in existence.
The nursing staff consisted of Sisters from the Bandora Convent and girls
from the same institution who acted as assistant nurses; the Sisters were Sisters
Juliana, Edith, Hilda, and Elizabeth, three of whom were generally present, and
never less than two. The work done by these Sisters richly merits all that can be
said in its favor, their untiring and self-denying devotion to alleviate the sufferings
of the stricken, in the prosecution of which one of them, Sister Elizabeth, died a
victim to the plague, won for them the confidence and lasting gratitude of a large
community. The four girls from the Convent who assisted them worked well and
steadily throughout. Of the two Hospital Assistants, Mr. Shaik Wazir fell ill of
the plague, and for the greater part of the period of the hospital's existence, the
other Assistant, Mr. Sullivan, carried on all the duties in a most able manner.
Of the eight ward orderlies, five belonged to the 8th, one to the 21st, and
two to the 22nd Bombay Infantry, and all worked very satisfactorily.
Much trouble was experienced with the menial staff, many of whom, their
services having been engaged with the greatest difficulty, left after working only
for a short time, leaving no substitutes and causing the steady work of the hospital
to be much retarded by their absence.
The hospital was used for all plague cases found in Mahim and Eastern
Dharavi and all plague cases and suspects detained by the Medical inspecting Staff
at the Bandora-Mahirn Causeway. It was opened on the 26th of March and closed
on the 18th of May 1897, and in all there were 90 admissions, of whom 42 died
(10 within 24 hours after admission), 41 recovered, and 7 were transferred in a
convalescent condition to the Parel and Arthur Road Hospitals. In addition, a
large number of suspects from the Bandora-Mahim Causeway were daily kept
under observation, those only who developed plague having been included under
the number admitted.
Summary of Report on Mahim Causeway Hospital.
Hospital opened ...
Hospital closed ...
Admissions ...
Recoveries ... ...
Deaths ... ...
Transferred convalescent
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26-3-97
18-5-97
90
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42
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