About

About

YIa’s Nursing Journey

When the opportunity arose to join a nursing aid program in 1963 at Sam Thong, Yia pleaded with her mother for permission to enroll. Despite lacking formal education and the ability to read or write in Lao, she was granted approval. Through what she describes as a divine intervention, she quickly learned these skills upon entering the program. Initially, she was the only Hmong girl who joined the program until other ethnic Lao girls join the program. The initial seven girls would be called the “Magnificent Seven” because their bravery in action inspired and convinced General Vang Pao to grow the program.  Their work began without pay, and later earning a modest wage.  For three years, she received only 500 Lao Kip, the equivalent of 25 cents in U.S dollar.  The work was gruesome with long hours, minimal sleep, and constant challenges with scarce resources in the makeshift tent hospital where they cared for countless sick people and injured soldiers.

In 1964, amidst conflict in southern and eastern Laos, the hospital struggled with insufficient supplies, resorting to recycling bandages and needles. Yia vividly recalls the trauma of treating soldiers with severe injuries and the overwhelming compassion she felt for their suffering. Despite the hardships and often working on just one meal a day, she and her colleagues persevered, feeling more like enslaved caregivers than nurses.

Their plight improved somewhat when Pop Buell intervened, securing meager salaries and eventually funding to build a new hospital in Sam Thong. Yet even with this progress, they endured continued challenges such as lack of electricity, relying on flashlights and the occasional oil lamp. In the beginning, there were no uniforms.  Yia continued to wear traditional Hmong attire to work until 1965 when each nurse was given two outfits. The outfits had to be washed every day in order to wear them the next day.