West German Red Cross Hospital, 1956
A German nurse attends to a small child in a bed on one of the wards at the West German Red Cross Hospital. The weathered two-story former school building in the heart of Pusan, South Korea treats thousands of Korean civilians. Under the management of Prof. Dr. Guenther Huwer, director at the hospital since January 1954, 10 German doctors, 28 nurses and 31 administrative specialists supervise 250 Korean employees and treat more than 7,000 patients annually. The only requirement for patients to be admitted is need, economic as well as medical. The hospital weeds out those who can afford medical treatment elsewhere, those whose medical needs are minor in nature, and those who have purchased a fake "letter of recommendation," believing it would gain them admittance. Even with this selection process in place, the hospital treats three times the number of patients daily that a comparable U.S. or German hospital would treat.
