First Three Graduate Nurses of the Philippines
(Third of a series)
(Editor's note: This is a reprint of the booklet published by the author)
Unforgettable Experience with the Witch
While Felipa was the lone nurse-trainee then from 1901-1905, she related an unforgettable experience with some superstitious patients who were afraid to be treated by the white doctors and nurses. She recounted one incident when Dr. Hall brought a female patient in her early 40's from a distant barrio in Leon town, Iloilo, in the course of his visitation with sick people and at the same time preaching the Word of God. The lady patient had wounds all over her body inflicted by a sharp bolo for she was accused by her father-in-law of having eaten her daughter. Felipa was the lone nurse-trainee on duty assigned to care for the so-called witch patient. Felipa had a male companion that evening who took care of the cleanliness of the hospital rooms. He was requested by Felipa to stay with her as she too was also afraid of the witch patient who kept on making weird sounds. Mrs. Hall made a round of the hospital that evening and she visited Felipa's demonic patient who was agonizing from bolo wounds all over her body. Mrs. Hall told Felipa to give the patient soft diet that evening. She obeyed the head nurse's instruction and gave the weird patient rice porridge and boiled fish that evening. At midnight, Felipa heard an eerie sound coming from the thick shrubs and trees near the room of the female patient. She kept moving uneasily from side to side in her bed. Felipa called the boy and told him about the patient's behavior and her reaction to the noise coming from outside the room. The boy told Felipa that the weird sound was that of a black bird ("tiktik") as the patient was believed to be an "aswang" (witch). Without Felipa's knowing it, the boy burned a piece of carabao horn and placed in underneath the bed of the witch patient to test her whether she was really an "aswang" (witch) together with the eerie sound coming from the thick shrubs and trees. The patient cried aloud when she smelled the smoke and felt the heat under her bed. Felipa who was visiting another patient ran to see what happened and the boy confirmed that the patient was really an "aswang". Felipa ordered the boy to remove the burning horn under the patient's bed as the agonizing sound might awaken the American doctors and Mrs. Hall.
Bone Inside Mouth of Witch Woman
The following morning, the doctor made a round of his patients and one of those they visited was the unruly woman who was wounded in many parts of the body by her father-in-law as she was said to be a witch. The doctor found inside the mouth of the female patient a big bone. Mrs. Hall was called and she asked Felipa what food she gave the patient that evening and the young nursing-trainee answered that she gave a soft diet meal. "But why it is that a big bone was found inside the mouth of the patient?" asked the American nurse. "You see Mrs. Hall, there was a weird sound coming from the thick brushes midnight last night and the patient kept on moving from side to side on her bed as if somebody was hurting her," Felipa told the American nurse. "Oh, Felipa, I don't believe in witches and the fact that a bone was found inside the patient's mouth, no doubt you gave her meatbone and a full diet meal," Mrs. Hall said.
Felipa and the hospital boy were certain that a "talonon" (wild witch) was hiding behind the thick brushes and trees that late evening. But the Americans did not believe the confession of both Felipa and the hospital boy. The day following, the weird female patient was transferred to another room away from the thick brushes. Since there was no other lady nursing-aide in the hospital at the time, Felipa was again tasked to watch the witch patient that evening. She did not allow the hospital boy to put incense and live charcoal under the bed of the woman patient. That evening, Felipa recalled, the patient was no longer bothered by a weird sound as the bed of the witchwoman was far from the thick brushes and trees. Morning came and Mrs. Hall examined the female patient and found no more bone inside her mouth. Although the Americans were skeptical about local witches' presence in the hospital surrounding, they ordered the trimming of the thick shrubs and fell down trees fronting the hospital rooms. Except for the howling of the dogs in late evening, no weird sounds had been heard near the hospital during midnight and in the wee hours of the morning.
(To be continued)
(Part four on Tuesday, May 1, 2007)