Blog Post
Your Circumstances Does Not Determine Your Fate
Antoinette Steyn • May 25, 2020
Dr. James M. Barry was a young and excellent military surgeon. He was only 5 feet tall but was a brilliant swordsman, the champion of his unit and he was an excellent shot to boot. During an illustrious career in the British Army, progressing to the rank of General, Dr. Barry eventually accepted a placement as military surgeon in Cape Town. Here he was known to have saved the life of one of Lord Charles Somerset’s daughters, against all odds, and eventually became good friends with Lord Charles. In 1826, whilst stationed in Cape Town, Dr. Barry was called to attend to one Mrs. Wilhelmina Munnik who had been in labour at that stage for an excessive amount of time. To the extent that the situation had become life-threatening for both mother and baby. The midwife attending to her had tried everything and wasn’t sure what to do next.
Dr. Barry found that a normal birth wouldn’t be possible and an emergency C-section had to be performed on Mrs. Munnik. In those days a C-section was the last option to save a baby and it was also accepted that after a C-section the mother would certainly die. In those days there were no anaesthetics and bacteria wasn’t discovered yet. Washing hands was not yet considered as an important part of keeping infections from spreading. Jeremy Dronfield one of the co-writers of the book in Dr. Barry’s life however writes that Dr. Barry had a “radical dedication towards hygiene”.
Dr. Barry clearly was a man before his time. Mrs. Munnik was held down and Dr. Barry performed the C-section on her. Medical history was made that night. Not only did Dr. Barry save the baby, he continued to save the life of Mrs. Munnik as well. Dr. Barry performed the first recorded successful C-section in the British Empire in which both mother and baby survived. Mrs. Munnik named her son James Barry Munnik in honour of Dr. Barry. In the Munnik family in every generation up to today there is a boy who was named James Barry Munnik. Dr. Barry retired holding the rank of Inspector General, the highest rank which can be obtained by a medical Doctor in the British military.
Dr. Barry passed away at the age of 76 in 1865. After Dr. Barry’s death, on performing a post-mortem examination, a shocking discovery was made. Dr. Barry was in fact a woman! The British military and medical profession found themselves in a position where they had to face a big scandal. In those days no woman was allowed in the military not to mention being promoted to the rank of a General. Woman simply weren’t allowed to become medical doctors either not to mention becoming a surgeon.
The British Military covered up the story and said nothing about it. Dr. Barry was buried as a man and all records with regards to the story was sealed for a 100 years. Dr. Barry’s true identity only surfaced in the year 2008 after researchers and writer Michael du Preez discovered her true name, Margaret Anne Bulkley. She was born in Cork in Ireland in 1789. When she was a teenager, her father was subjected to civil imprisonment for bad debt. During this time she was raped by her uncle and accordingly gave birth to his child.
At the age of 19 she cut her hair and dressed herself as a man. She entered herself in the Edinburg University in order to become a surgeon. She qualified in 1812 and joined the British Military. After her retirement she kept on living as a man. This was undoubtedly to avoid unnecessary drama, conflict and publicity. After her death various pictures cut out of a magazine of the latest fashion for women was found pasted in her suitcase lid. Even though Dr. Barry had to become a man in order to live her dream, she never stopped being a woman either.
Her story serves as a great testimony of the fact that a person has the ability to reach their goals despite their circumstances. If Dr. Barry chose to focus on the challenges which stood in her way instead of creating new opportunities she never would have been able to live her dream, let alone achieve the incredible things she did. In this life there will be many medical discoveries which will never be made, new inventions that will never be invented and records that will never be broken due to the fact that many talented people focus on what keeps them from achieving their goal rather than focusing on the things which can help them achieve their goals.
Life is a lot like a mirror and the image reflecting back at you is a direct image of your own outlook, thoughts, opinions, perceptions and expectations. We are not defined by what happens to us, the negative opinions of others or even the things done to us by others, but we are defined by our reaction towards these things.
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