"IRON LUNGS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 299, 17 December 1937, Page 9

"IRON LUNGS."

EIGHT IN A ROW. TORONTO HOSPITAL. N.Z. SURGEON'S TOUR, (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Eight children in "iron lungs," all in ft row in the Toronto General Hospital Mas the most dramatic sight of a nine months world tour, according to Sir Hugh Auland, .who has returned to <( l.nst.hurch. Sir Hugh happened to be "i Toronto when the city was experiencing an epidemic of infantile paralysis ami was given an opportunity of studying the methods used to combat the spread of the disease and the treatment of those suffering from it. Describing the operation of the iron lung, S.r Hugh said that the patient's »><l.\ \* as placed inside it, with the head outside. A tight-fitting rubber u»llar round the neck made the apnaratus air-tight. There were rubber doors in he side of the lung so that nurses ' I,tu>n(l . to t' ,e patients without iiitertering with the pressure inside the A rhythmic variation of pressure inside the lung stimulated the patient into breathing. The whole apparatus, in tact, was a form of artificial respiration. 1

It was not possible to make an definite statement on the value of the lung, as, when he was in Toronto, they had not had sufficient experience of the apparatus to assess its true value. Patients placed in it had recovered, but it was not possible to say whether they would have recovered without that particular treatment. Made in Hospital. The iron lungs used in Toronto were actually made in the hospital, he said. The splints used in the hospital were also made on the premises. Sir Hugh travelled via Australia to South Africa, where he visited a son who is farming in the Union. From there he went to England, attending as New Zealand delegate the annual meeting of the British Medical Association held at Belfast, in Northern Ireland. Norway and Denmark were the next countries he visited and he returned to New Zealand via Canada and the United States. In Chicago he met many famous surgeons who were attending the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons. He also visited the Mayo clinic at Rochester, an experience which he found most profitable. Sir Hugh found Americans jumpy and fearful of another depression. In the United States everything dated from 1929, when the big slump began, and the prospect of another such experience was causing considerable concern. Sir Hugh made his long journey with the intention of deriving the greatest possible educative value from his experiences. He was particularly interested in modern methods of surgery and the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.