Mary Jerome Paul - TLM Hero

When Mary Jerome Paul joined The Leprosy Mission (TLM) as a General Nursing and Midwifery in 1968, times were challenging. Most of the TLM hospitals were looking to strengthen surgery as a service, especially reconstructive surgery. Mary was instrumental in helping the hospitals set up operating theatres, equipping them with necessary supplies and training nurses to develop skills and knowledge in operation theatre nursing and basic nursing standards. She was an important member of the team that worked on reviving operation theatres and contributing to complex yet successful reconstructive surgeries in TLM hospitals.

Furthermore, she was a member of the faculty that conducted workshops for national and international candidates on nursing skills, health education, psychosocial aspects of leprosy, and waste management, including management of biohazardous waste. She was also a member of the travelling surgical team that conducted reconstructive and eye surgery camps that took her to several TLM hospitals in India.

Mary’s life was steeped in learning and uplifting people around her. She expanded her horizons of experience and skills by engaging herself in developing and sustaining community programmes that helped people by leprosy to resettle and integrate back into their communities.

Mary had always been a driven individual, who even chose to cut short her maternity leave so that she can help patients in need of care. It is her passion to put her patients before her personal needs. That same drive and passion guided her in all her assignments across TLM hospitals, and sometimes under difficult circumstances, during her 34-year-long nursing career.