SPOTLIGHT 23/09/29 Koreans mourn Polish nurse who loved and served lepers

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Koreans mourn Polish nurse who loved and served lepers 

Margaret Pisarek served at Korea's largest leper colony at Sorokdo Island for nearly four decades

The Korean Nurses Association pays tributes to Poland-born nurse Margaret Pisarek who served leprosy patients for nearly four decades and died in Austria on Sept. 29. (Photo: The Korean Nurses Association via CBPC)

By UCA News reporter

Published: October 06, 2023 09:47 AM GMT

Catholics joined top South Korean government officials and medical professionals to pay homage to a Poland-born nurse who served leprosy patients in the country for nearly four decades.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo along with Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyu-hong, and Health and Medical Policy Director Jeon Byeong-wang attended a memorial service for Margaret Pisarek in Seoul on Oct. 5, Catholic Peace Broadcasting Corporation (CPBC) reported.

The memorial program was organized by the Korean Nurses Association. It included prayers, memorial speeches, and placing floral wreaths.

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Pisarek died in a heart attack while undergoing surgery for a femur fracture at a hospital in Innsbruck, Austria on Sept. 29. She was 88.

She also had Austrian citizenship and graduated from the Nursing School in Innsbruck in 1955.

In 1966, Pisarek was sent to South Korea by the Damien Foundation, a global charity fighting leprosy and tuberculosis. Together with fellow nurse Mariane Stöger, now 89, Pisarek devoted herself to the care of leprosy patients at Sorokdo Island in South Jeolla province, Korean Posts reported.

During that period, Sorokdo had the largest leper colony in Korea while Korean doctors were mostly reluctant to come in contact with patients.

Pisarek reportedly treated patients by personally disinfecting them and wiping away pus.

Stöger had already been on the island since 1962.

Besides serving patients, the nurse duo helped set up the Marianne and Margaret Training Center to promote nursing education.

Both Pisarek and Stöger left South Korea in 2005 due to age-related health problems.

For her lifelong services to leprosy patients on the island, Pisarek was fondly called “Sorokdo Angel.” Stöger was known to locals as “Little Grandma.”

“As foreigners with shortcomings, we received great love and respect. We are as thankful as heaven,” the nurses wrote in a letter to the people of the island after they left.

Stephan Seo Jeong-su, who knew the deceased nurse for years, said she was a saintly figure.

“When I saw her caring for critically ill patients, I thought this person might be a saint,” he told CPBC.

“May she find eternal rest in the arms of the Lord,” he prayed.

The Korean Nurses Association paid tributes to Pisarek in a condolence message following her death.

“All 500,000 nurses in Korea will remember the noble life of a teacher who lived a life for people with leprosy,” said the association’s president Kim Young-kyung.

“We will always remember you, teacher, because you are a bright star that shines on all the sick in the world,” Kim added.

Reports say South Korea has very few new cases of leprosy and most of the leprosy services focus on support to elderly people living with leprosy-related disabilities.

Leprosy is also known as Hansen’s disease. Norwegian scientist Dr. G.H.A. Hansen first discovered mycobacterium leprae, a bacterial agent that causes the disease, in 1873.

For decades, people in many parts of the world considered leprosy a “curse” due to its contagious nature, the extreme level of physical disability in patients and its relatively high fatality rate.

Today, leprosy is a curable disease with multi-drug therapy (MDT) if detected at an early stage.

World Health Organization (WHO) terms leprosy a neglected tropical disease (NTD) with new detections reported from various parts of the world including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania.

The agency says on average 200,000 people are diagnosed with leprosy every year across the world.

In 2021, the WHO launched a global campaign for the elimination of leprosy by 2030.