Samuel Cochran
Samuel Cochran (May 9, 1871 – December 26, 1952) was an American medical missionary and philanthropist who worked for over twenty years in Eastern China.
Cochran's long-term research, started at the mission and continued at the university, focused on treating Kala-Azar,[6] a parasitic disease endemic to China.
[1] Cochran's maternal grandfather was Robert Carter, a famous book publisher in New York and one of the founders and charter members of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.
[10][11] Cochran later pursued an education in bacteriology and serology in 1914 at the Post Graduate Hospital (now New York University Grossman School of Medicine).
[11] While they intended to spend time in Nanking to learn the Chinese language and prepare for medical work,[6] the Cochrans were uprooted by the Boxer Rebellion, which targeted foreigners.
[16][17] As the Boxer Rebellion diminished, the Cochrans would soon return to Nanking, where they finished preparing for their own mission station located at Hwai-Yuen.
A jam of boats along the Grand Canal and a contaminated water supply led to Cochran's nephew developing dysentery and dying.
[2] The boarding school would house eighty students which targeted the "most influential families of the city," but loan libraries and reading rooms purportedly attracted many.
[12] Early successful cases resuscitating a patient with opium poisoning greatly increased the missionaries' reputation among the locals.
[19] Finally, Cochran treated many cases of Kala-Azar, determining a way to increase the success rate of incredibly dangerous splenectomies.
[12] The new hospital provided Cochran with the opportunity to conduct research, allowing him to engage in medical conferences throughout China.
"[2] In 1911, numerous provinces in Eastern China were inundated with the overflowing of nearby rivers, primarily the Yangtze and the Huai (which Hwai-Yuen is located near).
[23] Cochran was directly responsible for 7,000 square miles of this, where two-thirds of all individuals were reported to have abandoned their homes in search of food.
[23] This resulted in more than thousands of homeless and hungry, resorting to eating things such as grass, straw, and tree bark.
[24] Cochran's hospital work would decrease as he routinely took multiple-day rides throughout Anhui province to monitor the grain distribution.
As a result, Cochran set up and operated a special fever ward in buildings adjacent to Hope Hospital.
However, unlike the Boxer Rebellion, this revolution was not targeted at foreigners and missionaries - many of whom supported the poor in China during the famine and plague.
[25] Despite the missionary's confidence in their safety, several thousand people had converged on Hwai-Yuen, where "an attack, with inevitable looting and massacre, was imminent," according to Cochran.
[12] For his work, Cochran would receive the Order of the Kia Ho from Hsu Shih-chang, President of China.
Mrs. Cochran was responsible for speaking to the Women's Foreign Missionary Society chapters at various local Presbyterian Churches.
[6] Cochran saw success improving the effectiveness of antimony (a treatment for Kala-Azar) available on the market from his lab in Tsinan.
By 1923, Shantung University had built a dormitory for female students, and two classes of the Peking and Cheeloo Medical colleges were merged in 1924.
[26] Cochran would be forced to leave Shantung University and return to the United States in 1926 due to poor health.
[9] Following his resignation from Shantung University due to poor health, Cochran worked as a liaison officer for the New York Medical Center until 1949.
[39] Between the two hospitals at Hwai-Yuen and his role with the United Board for Christian Colleges in China, Cochran has touched the lives of many.
