|
Paul Brand: joy beyond richesDr. Paul Brand was best known for his medical labours among lepers in India. His work was immortalised in the popular book 'Ten Fingers for God' by Dorothy Clarke Wilson. He died in July, though his obituary did not appear in The Daily Telegraph until September. He was the son of missionary parents in India. When I saw the notice of Dr. Brand's passing I took a special interest because his father, Jesse Brand, was sent out to India as a missionary from our own congregation way back in 1907. In fact, his grandfather, Henry, besides being an alderman of Guildford, was also a deacon of our church. Jesse was noted for his evangelistic zeal. With others he had begun a tract society in the town and it is interesting to read some of its records. The members distributed Christian tracts to houses, on public transport and in the public parks. During 1905-6, nearly 19,000 tracts were given out. One entry in the records reads: 'Dogs were a menace. But two women went to a house with a tract in one hand and a bone for the dog in the other!' Kolli HillsJesse's evangelistic zeal led to a call to foreign missions. His commissioning meeting at the Old Baptist Chapel in Guildford was on Wednesday, November 27 1907, 'previous to his sailing in the P & O Steamship Persia' two days later. Paul Wilson Brand was born on July 17 1914, the son of Jesse Brand and his wife Evelyn. The family served with the Strict Baptist Mission and were located in the Kolli Hills, South India. There is a brief snapshot of the family home on furlough. One writer recalls the SBM camps at Guildford in 1923 and at Osterley in 1924. 'Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Brand and Mr. and Mrs. D. Morling were ñliveî missionaries, and they showed much of that real India, to which in the service of Christ, they devoted their lives. Perhaps the bare feet of Paul and Connie Brand, then children fresh in England from the Kolli Hills, and seen skipping in the fields and marching along country paths, first convinced me how very different were the ways of India!' (1) But it was not long after this that the family was in sorrow. In 1929, while the two youngsters were staying at their grandmother's home (Nethania) in St. John's Wood, news came through from India of Jesse's death from blackwater fever. However, this too was used by God. Mrs. Brand's niece, Dr. Ruth Harris, was asked to go out to be with her. The journey took a whole month. She wrote: 'Reaching the foot of the Kolli Hills, ...dear Auntie Evie was waiting to welcome me and accompany me up the long, narrow steep and rocky path to her home... which was situated at about 3,400 feet'. After describing the wooden bungalow to which Jesse and Evelyn had come when they were first married and where Paul and Connie were brought up, she goes on to muse: 'What appeared to be a quick decision to get up and go out to help Auntie, proved to be something more serious in my life. I had come to the crossroads and in the future this was going to mean a great deal. God was in it all. I had been praying for some time that God would show me where He wanted me to go when I was qualified. The thought of China had now completely gone out of my mind and I knew I should return to serve Him in India'.(2) Medicine and leprosyMeanwhile, back in England, Paul had begun a five-year building apprenticeship. His grandfather, Henry Brand, was a builder and contractor. Already strongly committed to Christ, at the age of 18 Paul had begun preaching at the Guildford Chapel. He entertained thoughts of following his father as a missionary, but in 1937 he changed direction, starting at University College Medical School in central London, where he met his future wife, Margaret Berry. They married in 1943. In war-time London Paul and his fellow students were on constant call during the Blitz. It was in dealing with these victims that he first began to develop an interest in the workings of the human hand. In 1944 he was appointed surgical officer at the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street, then became assistant in the surgical unit at University College Hospital. The defining moment in Dr. Brand's life came in 1946 when he and Margaret were invited by Dr. Robert Cochrane, the foremost authority on leprosy, to join him at the Christian Medical College Hospital at Vellore, Tamil Nadu, South India. It was here Paul and Margaret first became aware of the anguish and isolation of people with leprosy. He took over orthopaedic surgery in the hospital. Many of the lepers he saw had hands like claws, or there were fingers missing. Researching all this, in the late 1940s Paul Brand became the first surgeon in the world to use reconstructive surgical techniques to correct the deformities of leprosy in the hands and feet. His original tendon transplantation, using a good muscle from the patient's forearm, became known as 'the Brand Operation'. New lifeBut his work did not end with surgery. Many of his patients returned to say that their healed hands impaired their effectiveness as beggars. So Dr. Brand set up the New Life Centre, where his patients were taught new skills for work so that they could return to a fuller life in the community. All the time he was at Vellore, Paul Brand's friendship and help for the SBM missionary staff was very real and warm. In 1952 the Rockefeller Foundation in New York offered him a grant enabling him to consolidate his work. He was also offered sponsorship by the British Mission to Lepers. As news of the success of Paul Brand's surgery spread, leprosy patients began to arrive at the hospital from all over Southern India. Trainee surgeons were recruited and by 1959 some 5,000 reconstructions of hands and feet had been carried out, of which Dr. Brand had carried out a half personally. He was appointed CBE in 1961. In 1966 the Brands were seconded to the US Public Health Service Hospital at Carville, Louisiana, a renowned centre for leprosy research. For more than 20 years he taught surgery and orthopaedics at the Medical College at Louisiana State University. After retiring in the mid-1980s, the Brands moved to Seattle. He was international president of the Leprosy Mission from 1992 to 1999. The writerDr. Brand was a prolific writer. In the medical sphere he contributed Clinical Mechanics of the Hand, a reference book for hand-surgeons and specialists. Another retired Christian surgeon said, 'Paul Brand was one of those missionary doctors who stood out. Even the world had to acknowledge his greatness in the area of hand surgery'. Forming a friendship with Philip Yancey, Paul Brand co-authored some Christian books. Perhaps the most famous of these is Fearfully and Wonderfully Made which reflects on the marvellous design of the human body and points to the Designer. JEBIn writing this I am much indebted to the article which appeared in The Daily Telegraph. (1) Come With Me, John K. Thorpe, SBM, 1956. John Benton© Evangelicals Now - December 2003 |