Page 65 of Sisters Under The Rising Sun

‘Of course, do you want to sit down?’

‘No, I think if I sat down, I wouldn’t get up again.’

Nesta eases herself up. ‘Come on, let’s go outside.’

Shutting the door behind them, Nesta asks, ‘So, how are you doing?’

‘As well as anyone here, but I’m worried.’

‘About?’

‘I’ve just been with one of the Chinese families, one of the mothers waved me down on my rounds and asked me to come and see her children.’

‘Are they ill?’

‘I’d like you to take a look, but I think they might have typhus.’

Nesta gulps. This is the last thing their depleted bodies need.

‘OK, this is serious. Take me to the house, and then go and fetch Dr McDowell. But be discreet, we don’t want to frighten anyone.’

A short while later, Dr McDowell appears at the home of the Chinese family, the young nurse in tow. Nesta has cleared the room, except for the mother of the two children who lie on the floor, sweating, shivering and groaning with delirium.

‘How long have they been like this?’ Dr McDowell asks, kneeling quickly to examine the children.

Nesta has to force the mother to focus on the doctor’s questions.

‘Two or three days,’ she says.

Dr McDowell stands up and turns to the young nurse. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Eileen, Doctor.’

‘And you told Nesta you think these children might have typhus.’

‘Yes. I’m sorry, did I get it wrong?’

‘No, you got it very right. I want to thank you for reacting so quickly.’ The doctor turns to Nesta. ‘We need to move these children to the hospital straightaway, but we also need to alert Miachi. I’m going to go and arrange for some help. Will you go and tell Mrs Hinch that she needs to find her favourite friend, Ah Fat, and let him know the gravity of this situation so he can pass it up the line. I’ll try to quarantine the children, along with their mother, as best I can. Eileen, do you mind staying here until I return?’

‘No, Doctor.’

‘Let’s go, Nesta.’

Before she leaves, Nesta turns to the young nurse. ‘Good job, Eileen, averygood job – you may have saved these children’s lives.’

Within days, more internees from the same house are diagnosed with typhus. To protect the rest of the camp, they quarantine the house, with the nurses providing round-the-clock care. Dr McDowell visits several times a day.

But there is panic amongst the Japanese guards, who fear disease as much as they fear their human enemy. Miachi asks to see Mrs Hinch and Nesta in his office.

‘Captain Miachi wants to know how bad is the sickness?’ Ah Fat asks the women.

‘We have it contained in the one house, but there are fourteen patients inside confirmed with typhus,’ Nesta tells him.

‘Captain wants to know what can we do to stop it.’

‘We need clean water, not the contaminated water dragged from the well. We need more firewood to boil the water, and to clean surfaces.’

Miachi takes his time to respond.