FROM THE ARCHIVES:The fate of the dispensary doctor at Burtonport, Co Donegal, who died fighting a typhus outbreak on Arranmore was described in this editorial supporting appeals for funds for his widow and children.
THE LETTER signed by the Presidents and ex-Presidents of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons which appeared in our issue of yesterday, in reference to the death of Dr. William Smyth, of Burtonport, must have been read with feelings of the keenest sympathy. If ever there was a martyr to duty Dr. Smyth is entitled to rank as such.
He fought single-handedly the deadly typhus outbreak on the Island of Arranmore. The appearance of the disease spread panic amongst those on the island and on the mainland, and the devoted and heroic doctor had to depend on himself alone. Each day he had to row his boat out to the island, and there he had to penetrate the wretched hovels in which the patients lay, on the verge of death.
Bravely he battled against the disease, and the terror which it seems to have excited. He cast all personal considerations to the winds and gave his energy and skill unreservedly for nothing practically to the islanders. He went each day from his home and faced terrible risks: he left behind him each morning a wife and eight children, one of them only a few weeks old. He knew the risks, yet he hesitated not.
He went into the fever-stricken dens: he was at once nurse and doctor, and when at length he saw that it was impossible to cope with the outbreak by treating the patients in their cabins, he, in company with another devoted medical man, had to bring the cases to the beach and to face the perils of the sea in rowing them over to the mainland.
The voyage was successful so far as his patients were concerned, but it was fatal to the rescuer. He caught the disease, and despite the efforts of his medical comrades in the vicinity, succumbed. The sad story is one of the most glorious and pathetic in the whole history of the medical profession in Ireland. We remember no instance of heroism so deliberate under circumstances so trying. Dr. Smyth must have realised to the fullest the dangers which surrounded him, and as he went to his perilous and as it has proved fatal task each morning he had before him the picture of his home and family, now left derelict owing to the self-sacrifice of a man who has given his life without a murmur or suggestion of complaint in the cause of suffering humanity.
We trust the appeal which has been issued will be nobly responded to. It would be a terrible slur on the Irish people if the widow and orphans of Dr. Smyth should suffer one hour’s anxiety owing to his magnificent courage and his splendid devotion to duty. No matter how much will be done for them, their sorrow can scarcely be assuaged: but a tribute worthy of the people can be paid to a succession of deeds, of courage and self-sacrifice which could hardly be excelled in the entire records of heroism.
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