Mary Bruins Allison

Mary Bruins Allison (March 19, 1903 – September 15, 1994) was one of the first American women to be trained in medicine in the United States to work as a missionary physician in Arabia.

In her forty-year long career, she worked primarily in Kuwait, as well as India, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

[12] Allison was required to first attend to the VIP, or aristocratic women, who she charged an extra fee for the convenience.

[13] To treat these cases, Dr. Allison often needed to leave the hospital to make house calls.

In 1943, she rejoined her husband in India, and despite their decision to divorce, she stayed and worked at Dahanu Mission Hospital[14] till 1945.

In 1948, a request to establish a hospital in Doha was made by the sheikh of Qatar, where Allison worked for four months.

[15] In 1964, a medical malpractice complaint was filed against Allison; this subsequently led to the end of her career in Kuwait.

[17] Around 1967, the Church began to question why it conducted missions in areas where people were not converting to Christianity.

In 1971,[20] however, she received a call that said that the mission board requested that she work at the Mutrah Hospital in Oman.

The first building to house the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. In the late 1920s money was raised to build a campus.
Camel in Kuwait carrying fuel for cooking, 1938. Allison "described Kuwait homes as box-like buildings, whose outer enclosures formed a windowless high wall. Narrow passages between the row of houses provided space for pedestrians and donkeys". [ 6 ]