Funk, Irene (1943-1975)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1975 Mar 27 p. 5

Birth date: 1943 Jul 8

text of obituary:

Director of Nursing At India Hospital Dies at Age 21

Newton, Kan. (GCNS) — Word has been received here that Irene Funk, 21, General Conference missionary at Champa, M. P., India, died there March 19. She had been ill with septicemia, a blood disease.

Miss Funk, a registered nurse and a native of Drake, Sask., had been director of nursing at the Champa Christian Hospital since 1969.

She was born July 8, 1943, the daughter of Peter and Marie Funk of Drake. She was a member of the North Star Mennonite Church.

Burial took place on March 20 at Champa, and a memorial service was held at the North Star Church on March 21.

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1975 Dec 11 p. 2

Birth date: 1943 Jul 8

text of obituary:

At Champa, India

Controversy Over Missionary's Death

NEWTON, KAN. (GCNS).— Although medical reports, missionaries, and parents have shown confidence that Irene Funk died a natural death last March in India, controversy over the circumstances of her death is engulfing the Mennonite church in Champa, India, and the Mennonite mission there.

Because of unconfirmed allegations that the 31-year-old missionary nurse had been poisoned and the disagreements over this among Mennonites in Champa, Jubilee celebrations of the 75th anniversary of General Conference missions in India, planned for late December, were canceled. The church conference leaders agreed in October that celebration would be difficult under the circumstances.

MISS FUNK’S BODY was exhumed by police from the Champa church cemetery Oct. 17 following complaints by Dr. V. Tirkey, a physician dismissed from the Champa Christian Hospital’s employ in 1974, that Miss Funk had allegedly been poisoned by those who cared for her during her last days. Results of the chemical examination of the body have not yet been released.

Miss Funk, who had been nursing superintendent of the Mennonite hospital since 1969, died March 19 following a short illness diagnosed by physicians as acute leukemia.

Verney Unruh, Asia secretary for the Commission on Overseas Mission, General Conference Mennonite Church, said, "I have full confidence in those who took care of and treated Irene during her illness. I am sure that further investigation will absolve them."

HER PARENTS, Peter and Marie Funk of Drake, Sask., also expressed their "complete and full confidence that all those who attended Irene during her illness and demise acted in good faith. We are also fully assured that the diagnosis of acute leukemia made by Dr. M. K. Banerjee was based on thorough testing and was medically accurate.

"We are also confident that these allegations will be proven unfounded. Irene's sufferings came as an act of God. We hope no one else will need to suffer unjustly because of her death.”

Miss Funk had begun feeling ill while on a vacation March 6-9, but continued to work following that weekend.

She and fellow missionary Mary Schrag Pauls, a member of First Mennonite Church, Pretty Prairie, Kan., left by train March 10 for the annual meeting of the Emmanuel Hospital Association in Delhi. By the time they reached Nagpur, Miss Funk was feeling worse, and the two women returned to Champa by early morning March 12.

SHE WAS TREATED as an outpatient at the Champa hospital that morning by Dr. T. Mathai, medical superintendent of the hospital. She then went to the Pauls home, where she was cared for by Mary, a registered nurse, and other missionary women until her death a week later.

Although physicians at one point thought Miss Funk’s illness was septicemia (blood poisoning), Dr. Banerjee, a specialist from Bilaspur, 50 miles away — in consultation with Dr. Mathai and three other physicians — later diagnosed the illness as acute leukemia. The diagnosis was based on the rapid jump in white cell count (from 20,000 to 52,000 within a few days), on the presence of hemorrhaging beneath the skin, and on the supersensitivity of her skin and joints.

AFTER HER DEATH, an article appeared in the local newspaper citing rumors of "mysterious circumstances” surrounding her death. However, no investigation was undertaken until after John and Mary Pauls returned to India from a three-month furlough in North America in mid-September.

Unruh, who was in Champa on an administrative visit when the body was dug up, said the mission had tried to get an official delay of the exhumation in order to have time to contact the Canadian high commissioner, but the delay was refused.

Dr. Mathai, a native of South India, has been a physician on the Champa hospital staff since 1942. He was formerly the supervisor of Dr. Tirkey and had discharged the younger physician in August 1974 for allegedly unethical practices. Dr. Tirkey is now in private practice in Janjgir, a few miles from Champa.

Irene Funk was born July 8, 1943, in Rosthern and was a member of the North Star Mennonite Church. She had earned R.N. and B.S. in nursing degrees from the University of Saskatchewan.

The Mennonite obituary: 1975 Apr 1 p. 211