STORY
Dr. Mary Verghese
There are moments in life that don’t make sense. In an instant, life can turn upside down, inside out, and never be the same again. Mary Verghese had a moment like this, a tragic, crippling moment that ushered suffering, doubt, and loss into her young life. But it was also a moment that shaped her life and birthed a new calling and purpose used by God to help her country.
Mary grew up in a large, well-to-do family in a village in Kerala, India. Her parents were Christians and encouraged her in both faith and education. A disciplined student, she graduated with the highest grades in her class. Hoping to become an engineer, she enrolled in one of the few universities in India that accepted women, Maharaja’s College, where she studied mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Inspired by medical missionary Ida S. Scudder, Mary decided to follow in her footsteps and become a doctor. She enrolled in the Christian Medical College, founded by Scudder, to study gynecology. Bright, hardworking, and respected, everything seemed promising on her horizon.
Her life-altering moment came on January 30, 1954. Accompanied by friends on a recreational outing, they had a terrible car crash. Everyone was hurt, and everyone recovered—except Mary. Her spine was severely damaged, and she would never walk again. Bound to a wheelchair, she endured painful recovery and treatments, unable to imagine what this meant for her life and calling. She had invested so much to become a doctor, but without the use of legs, Mary couldn’t work as a gynecologist. In a single moment, so much of Mary had been broken.
During recovery, one of her former teachers, Dr. Paul Brand, came to encourage her. Despite her condition, he believed in Mary and didn’t want her to give up medicine. Dr. Brand, who treated patients with leprosy, urged her to consider specializing in hand surgery, which she could perform seated in her wheelchair. Though disappointed at first, she began to explore this new direction. Mary traveled to Australia to study rehabilitation medicine, then received a fellowship in New York under Dr. Howard Rusk, the field’s founder. She longed to bring what she had learned back to India to help those without access to such treatments. In 1966, 12 years after her devastating accident, Mary founded the first Physical Rehabilitation Institute in India.
Mary’s loss and brokenness became the open door for bringing rehabilitation medical training to her country. She was a talented, compassionate surgeon and a pioneer in her field. Despite all she achieved in the face of great hardship, she remained kind, humble, and a glowing Christian witness until her death on December 17, 1986, at the age of 61. The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Christian Medical College, founded by Mary, continues to celebrate her legacy by offering free checkups to those in need and hosting events to empower patients in a world that so often overlooks the talents of those affected by disabilities. To learn more about Mary, read Take My Hands: The Remarkable True Story of Dr. Mary Verghese by Dorothy Clarke Wilson.
