WARTIME SURGERY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 90, 26 January 1943, Page 2

WARTIME SURGERY.

SUCCESS OF NEW METHODS.

HOSPITALS IN PALESTINE.

SYDNEY, January 21

New wartime medical methods being used in Australian hospitals in Palestine will benefit civilians after the war. Of the thousands treated at a big Army hospital since the Axis forces were halted last July, only four wounded men have died.

At this' hospital, Ronald Monson, “Sydney Telegraph” war correspondent, saw a man still living whose heart had been accidentally pierced by a bayonet a week before. A soldier whose spine had been fractured by shrapnel was walking around doing odd jobs in his ward. There are cases of recoveries by men whose brains have been injured by shrapnel. The officer commanding this hospital before the war was attached to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. He said his staff carried out all the neurosurgical work for the Allied forces west of the Suez Canal. Successful brain and spine operations have given back health to otherwise doomed men. Australian nurses and V.A.’s work among the wounded in a vast, sprawling collection of hospital huts. The courage of the men helps the doctors immeasurably. A Presbyterian padre, spoke of a young Digger who had one leg off when he reached hospital. Told that the other leg would have to bo amputated, the lad said: “All right, Doc. I don’t play football anyhow.”