LIFE SAVED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 35, 11 February 1935, Page 8

LIFE SAVED.

AUCKLAND WOMAN. 200 MILES BY AMBULANCE. BLOOD TRANSFUSION GIVEN. One of the longest ambulance journeys ever undertaken in Xcw Zealand was completed ,"t three o'clock this morning when a woman who had been injured on a beach in the Bay of Plenty was admitted to the Auckland Hospital for a blood transfusion, which saved her life. The patient was Mrs. Hessey, of Dcvonport, who had been on holiday at Ohope Beach, near Whakatane, convalescent after a serious illness. Yesterday afternoon she was walking on the beach when she elipped and suffered injuries that caused severe loss of blood. Her immediate removal to the Auckland Hospital for a blood transfusion was ordered. Tho only ambulance in the Bay of Plenty was on duty at The Mount, some 50 miles distant. When the driver, Mr. F. C. Warner, superintendent of the Tauranga St. John Ambulance Brigade, received the call at 4 p.m. yesterday he arranged for the woman to bo brought by car to Fangaroa, on tho main road. Mr. Warner, accompanied by his wife, who is attached to the nursing division of the Tauranga brigade, then set off on his 225 mile journey. A well-timed connection was made at Pangaroa, and the patient transferred to the ambulance. She was in a very debilitated condition, and Mrs. Warner had to administer stimulants frequently. Journey at Low Speed. Tho ambulance driver had been warned of the danger of jolting Mrs. Hessey over bad roads, so only a very low speed cotfld be maintained over the earlier stages of the journey. Going over the Kaimai Ranges, and then taking the route via Matamata, Springdale, Ohinewai and on to the Great South Road, Mr. Warner kept driving throughout the night. _ Eleven hours after leaving Ihe Mount the ambulance arrived at the Auckland Hospital, where a blood donor was waiting, Mrs. Hessey was by. that time extreiuely exhausted, but she rallied after the transfusion. This morning she was reported to be progressing satisfactorily. , After a brief rest Mr. and Mrs. Warner returned'- with the ambulance this afternoon. When they reach Tauranga they will have travelled almost 400 miles.