Doctor Mary in Arabia

Mary Bruins Allison (1903–1994) spent four decades working as a missionary physician in the Middle East.

• PrefaceIntroductionTimeline of Events1. Early Life Earliest MemoriesMilwaukee ChildhoodPella, Iowa, and AdolescenceCentral CollegeGraduation and My First Job2. Medical Training The Woman’s Medical College of PennsylvaniaInternships3. Early Years in Kuwait Getting ThereA New LifeComing Out in Kuwaiti SocietyKuwait CityMission HistoryDr. MylreaLiving with Mary Van PeltWeddingsMy First CaseUnder the KnifeHomeMistake4. A Real Doctor Practicing Medicine in Kuwait, 1936Cases in the Early YearsTrachomaThe Summer’s HeatExpectations and Disappointments5. Medicine and Marriage The Way of a Man with a MaidScotland to Kuwait, Overland-1939Back to Work!A New Hospital, a New NurseCasesAyisha, and My Other PatientsSpringWith Norman in India6. The War Years Back to the U.S.A., January 1942DivorceThe Dahanu Road Mission Hospital (India)MonsoonAsked Back7. Kuwait Practice Renewed, 1945 New FacesNew CasesNew ProblemsFour Months at Qatar, 1948Changes and Obstetrics in KuwaitOman, 1949Running the Show in KuwaitSlavesTo U.S.A. on Furlough, 1950Kuwait Builds, 1951Cars and SchoolsKuwaiti Women’s Lives and Health in the 1950sThe Morning ClinicKuwait Women’s Medical Report to the Board-October 19548. Questions of Mission A Question of MissionKuwait Hosts the Annual Mission Meeting, 1955Shirley and the ShaikhKuwait InternationalizesRamadan and Clinics, 1954ConvertsAnother Question of Mission: Air-ConditionersMission 1955–1956The Board Reassesses the MissionsApplying the Board’s SuggestionsIraq’s Threat; Kuwait’s GrowthA New View of Islam9. Changes in the Mission Field, 1958 Back to the MissionFresh RecruitsThe Sixties in KuwaitMy Brother, Paul BruinsTimes of SorrowFurlough, 1964–196510. Bahrain Bahrain’s Historical BackgroundMission in BahrainCasesThe Closing of Kuwait’s Medical Mission, March 1967Interlude in Oman, 1968Back to Bahrain, Fall 1968Vacation in Kuwait, 1968Bahrain, 1970Back to the U.S.A.The Way Back: Bahrain’s New Church11. Oman Oman, 1971Historical Background of OmanThe Mutrah HospitalThe Mutrah Morning ClinicMalariaCholeraLeprosyTazeea for Dr. Wells Thoms, October 1971Diversions, 1972Travels in Oman, October and November 1972Kuwait RevisitedMy Last YearReturn to Dahanu RoadCholera EpidemicTurnoverStatistics and Hospital Data Annual Reports of the Kuwait Women’s Hospital to the Mission Board in New YorkAmerican Mission Hospital-KuwaitBahrain Attendance Records for Eleven Months of 1969Oman Mission Hospitals-Statistics, June 1 to Dec. 31, 1971Mutrah, Oman: Hospital Statistics, 1973Muscat, Oman: Assaada Hospital Statistics, 1973