Lengthy task uncovers region's medical hiostory

SEASONS GREETINGS: Patients celebrate Christmas at Greytown Hospital in 1912.

When journalist Marlene Ditchfield set out to research and help write Wairarapa's medical history, she didn't imagine it would lead to her shedding tears at the grave of Selina Sutherland, meeting the "illegitimate" daughter adopted by her mother's nurse, and discovering Greytown had its own witch doctor.

Mrs Ditchfield, a former health reporter for the Wairarapa Times-Age, spent over two years working on Helping Hands: A history of health care in the Wairarapa, launched at Greytown Town Hall on Sunday.

Helping Hands, was published by Fraser Books in Masterton, with Mrs Ditchfield commissioned by former Wairarapa DHB chairwoman Trish Taylor and long-time Wairarapa doctor Owen Prior.

The 432-page tome covers over 140 years of health in the region -- from early Maori health to the controversial closure of Greytown Hospital and beyond.

When Mrs Ditchfield began writing, she wasn't prepared for an all-consuming journey -- one that would lead as far as Australia.

"There was so many stories I never knew," Mrs Ditchfield said.

"I ended up getting a bit obsessed.

"I'm now a fountain of knowledge -- did you know, for example, the little Tiri Hospital in Martinborough was bought by Peter Jackson, and it now is the gardens of Matahiwi Estate?"

Mrs Ditchfield began work on the book in 2011, after Mrs Taylor asked her to record the history of the 1991 "Hands Around The Hospital" event -- where over 20,000 people protested the closing of Greytown and Masterton Hospitals.

For the next two years, Mrs Ditchfield travelled the length of the region, and spent hours interviewing the various town historians.

She discovered Eketahuna fell victim to a typhoid outbreak, nurses travelled on horseback to treat the sick during the 1918 flu pandemic, long-time ambulance driver Stewie Pickett's other job was to polish the five mile long corridor at Masterton Hospital, and Greytown was once home to a wealthy "faith healer", Andy Narain.

She also discovered some captivating characters: Sister Lenore McKenzie, who adopted a baby born at her Carterton maternity hospital; Dr Michael Hanratty, who killed a child in his care, and the "terrifying" Featherston nurse Alice Abbott.

"Alice was this big-chested lady, who ruled the place with an iron fist.

"I went to Auckland to interview her granddaughter, and they've got this scary photo of her up at North Shore Hospital to stop people going into the Coronary Unit."

By far the most fascinating was Selina Sutherland, the "no-nonsense" Scotswoman who, having "wowed" Gladstone farmers by curing footrot in their sheep, rode through the community on her horse, asking for money to found what was Masterton Hospital.

Mrs Ditchfield followed Selina's story to Melbourne where she had cared for the city's homeless children, later starting the beloved Sutherland Home for Orphans.

"She was inspiring -- a person born to manage, not be managed.

"I ended up weeping at her grave."

Mrs Ditchfield said Helping Hands was, at times, a "terribly overwhelming" project

"But I feel honoured to have told these stories.

"There's so much more to health than just facts, doctors and hospitals."