Catherine Hamlin

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Catherine Hamlin (2009)

Catherine Hamlin (born  January 24, 1924 in Sydney , † March 18, 2020 in Addis Ababa ) was an Australian doctor specializing in gynecology and obstetrics . Together with her husband Reginald Hamlin , she founded the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia in 1974 , where women with birth-related fistulas are treated free of charge. Like her husband, Catherine Hamlin has received several awards for her decades of commitment to women in Ethiopia, including the Right Livelihood Award in 2009 .

Life

Catherine Hamlin (right) in August 2006 with young African doctors at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital

Catherine Hamlin (née Nicholson) was born in Sydney in 1924 and completed her medical degree at the university there in 1946 . She then worked at St Joseph's Hospital in Auburn and St George Hospital in Kogarah and then specialized in obstetrics at Crown Street Women's Hospital in Sydney . In 1950 she married Reginald Hamlin , whom she had met at Crown Street Women's Hospital and who, like her, was a doctor in the field of gynecology and obstetrics. In May 1959 she and her husband went to Addis Ababa , where they both set up a midwifery school as part of a three-year project by the Ethiopian government .

After their contract ended, Catherine and Reginald Hamlin stayed in Ethiopia, initially at the Princess Tsahai Memorial Hospital and from 1974 at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital they founded, treating women with birth-related fistulas . These connections between the vagina and the urinary bladder or the intestine , which result from complications in childbirth or miscarriages , and which result in uncontrolled leakage of urine or excrement from the vagina, often have serious social consequences for affected women, as they usually leave their partners and be excluded from their social community.

Catherine and Reginald Hamlin developed a surgical technique that leads to a complete cure in around 93 percent of patients, and treated over 45,000 women over the course of more than four decades. After the death of her husband in August 1993, Catherine Hamlin took over the management of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.

Awards

Catherine Hamlin was inducted into the Order of Australia as a Companion in 1995 , the highest honor in her home country. The University of Sydney (2005) and the University of Dundee (2006) awarded her an honorary doctorate . She was made an Honorary Fellow by the American College of Surgeons (2003) and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (2005) . In 2009 Catherine Hamlin received the Right Livelihood Award .

Works (selection)

  • The Hospital by the River: A Story of Hope. Oxford 2004
  • Australian Stories of Life. Sydney 2005 (as co-author)
  • The hospital on the river. BoD, Bruchsal 2013, ISBN 978-3-7322-4468-3

literature

  • Hamlin, (Elinor) Catherine and Reginald Henry James. In: John Arnold, Deirdre Morris: Monash Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Australia. Reed Reference Publishers, Port Melbourne 1994, ISBN 1-875589-19-8 , p. 231
  • John Little: Catherine's Gift. The Extraordinary World of Dr Catherine Hamlin. Macmillan Australia, Sydney 2008, ISBN 1-4050-3882-9
  • Catherine Hamlin , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 05/2010 from February 2, 2010, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Commons : Catherine Hamlin  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Catherine Hamlin, 'Saint of Addis Ababa', dies at 96. In: The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved March 19, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Hamlin, Catherine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian gynecologist and obstetrician
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 2020
Place of death Addis Ababa