CRITICAL OPERATION AT SEA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 248, 1 August 1946, Page 5

CRITICAL OPERATION AT SEA

SOS FOR DOCTOR LONDON, July 31. ! A criiicffl’operation upon-a seaman with,a burst appendix was successfully carried out on board the Shaw, j Savill. ship' Coptic, bound --from New | Zealand to Tilbury.,,- in the early | hours of July 17. , The Coptic, when four days out from Curacao, received an S O'S from an American tanker, the Scottish American, asking for the services of a doctor. The Coptic immediately changed course and 9* hours later, at midnight on July IG, came lip" with the tanker. The patient, F. Norman, of North Shields, was immediately transferred from the Scottish American, and Dr. B. E. P. McCulloch, of the Coptic, a New Zealander, operated four hours later on the ship’s dining-table. Although the man’s appendix had burst some hours previously, the operation was successful and, when the Coptic had reached Tilbury on July 28, Norman was well on his way to recovery.