WHERE GROWN MEN ARE RE-LEARNING TO WALK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 29, 3 February 1945, Page 7

WHERE GROWN MEN ARE RE-LEARNING TO WALK

TN the basement of an ageing build- * ing on the corner of Cook Street and Bledisloe Street, city, at the back of the Town Hall, is a stock of willow logs, some twisted and some straight. In a narrow and unlighted recess are racks of steel rods, such as are used for reinforcing concrete. Also in the basement are sheets of aluminium and other light metals, and, in a larger compartment, a circular saw and bench, a lathe and other plant. The place could easily be taken for the workshop of a builder or other constructural manufacturer.

But such a guess would be a long way out. It is, in fact, part of the limb factory, formerly that of the Zenith Artificial Appliances Company. Now it has been taken ever by the Disabled Servicemen's Reestablishment League, and it is here that the needs of amputees from the last and the present war are attended to. Civilian amputees, too, can have artificial limbs made and fitted here. That is the position temporarily, for a modernly equipped orthopaedic section is included in the vocational training centre which some day will be erected on the corner of Horopito Street and Dominion Raad. I say "some cay," because years have elapsed since it was decided to. erect a new and up-to-date centre there, and a start has not yet been made.

Since the league was given charge of the limb factory much progress has been made. The whole of the ground floor has been taken over— there is a boarding-house on the top —and a spacious workroom has been provided on the street level for the six employees, one of whom is a trainee from the present war. The

conditions, compared with those in the dungeon-like basement where they used to work., are a marked and highly appreciated improvement.

The willow clogs are hollowed out and shaped to accommodate the limb stump of some unfortunate serviceman (or fortunate, for he might have been killed) and the iron rods are turned to essential fittings for knee joints. The lightsheet metals become ankles, elbows or thighs. There is a good deal of stout leather, too, for this can also be used for artificial limbs. With the sheet metal, leather is often, suitable for a stump where willow "would not have the same value. Use of Walking "Races" The appointments, though still somewhat cramped, are a vast improvement, and for the moment are meeting requirements. There is a fitting room, a plaster room where moulds of stumps are taken, and two walking "races." "Race" is not an appropriate term, for "limmies" don't exactly race when they are learning to walk. The race is merely a passageway with a rail to hold on to, and at each end there is a tall mirror. Not that there's any vanity or beauty parade about the process of learning to walk. The mirrors serve more or less as a distraction, as well as allowing the amputee to see his faults when he is being instructed. "Eyes front" is the frequent order, and with "eyes front"' is how the "limniie" paces the-Walk-ing race, seeing in the mirrors how his walking is progressing.

When I visited the centre two Maoris were in the process of being fitted. In charge of the operation was Mr. R. G. Taylor, an expert orthopaedist and prosthetist from Wellington, who is in charge of the centre during the absence on a world tour of Mr. A. L. Nugent, formerly proprietor of the Zenith Company, who will be superintendent for New Zealand when he returns.

Only one of the Maori amputees, C. R. Tuffnell. was walking. He was having a "refit." He lost his. right leg, seven inches below the knee, at Kaiamite, in south Greece,, and while he was in the N.Z.B.F. casualty station the Germans arrived and all at the station, including the medical personnel, were taken prisoner. Tuffnell has had many injections during his military career, but it is obvious that what he possesses in most liberal quantity is the cheer germ. Small, slightly built, but splendidly formed, he is that type of "cot case" that proves a more efficacious tonic in any hospital than all the medicines. He had been fitted with a leg that, after some use, caused discomfort and pain, and as he: is farming .90 acres of land at Kumeu, he wanted to be active on his "feet."

He was pacing the race with the same snappy s£ep as if on sentry go, and on the artificial leg was fitted a brown shoe that literally sparkled with polish. The leg was fitted with a brace round the opposite shoulder, the suspension best suited in his case. ■

An interested spectator of the test was Mr. Tom Davies, honorary secretary of the War . Amputees' Association. The paiv certainly "had

By G.A.P.

a leg to stand on," but only one, for Tom parted with both of his at ■ the outset of what might have been a daring escapade at Bailleul, in France, 28 years ago. It was illuminating to see the bond of common interest between the old and the young veteran. It was "stumps." The stump is the crux of the whole question in limb fitting.

And ■ stumps have nerves—real nerves that sometimes let you know they are there. Tom said he had a "whole chunk" of nerve taken out of one stump and the end went like a big onion and had to be eradicated. The young servicemen said he, too, had trouble with the nerves. He withdrew his stump from a warm flannelette sheath and showed the pulpy, flabby terminal where he said he sometimes suffered the pain. It was what Tom called "still weeping." The ex-member of the famous Maori s Battalion, somewhat apologetically, explained how the original amputation was done by a "Tommy' doctor who "really didn't set himself up as a specialist at that sort of work."

Subsequently surgical experts had made a better job of the end of the stump, though it had not yet completely healed. The new leg felt "just 0.K.," however, and with a little more practice would do away with the discomfort of its predecessor, he said. .It was obvious that the young veteran appreciated the advice he got from the old.

Asked how he managed on the farm, Tuffnell said he had his wife and a cowboy working on the place. When questioned on the wearing of heavy farm boots, he said that he mostly wore rubber boots and he could get round quite well. He liad some steep faces on the farm, which were all right for going down, but

sometimes, in wet weather, to ascend them was "not so hot" and necessitated going the long way round. With cheerfulness that characterised the fighting force to which he belonged, Tuffnell said that he was far better off than some of the "poor so-and-so's" who had "inner troubles" and other forms of disabilities much more difficult of diagnosis and treatment than his.

The decision to take over the business formerly carried on by Mr. Nugent, and to make limb-making and fitting practically a Government monopoly, will not act to the detriment of civilian amputees, but rather the reverse. The Disabled Servicemen's Re-establishment League will have a staff of the most highly trained experts in the country, and non-service amputees will reap the benefit. High-grade work is being done, and a commendable service is being rendered to all amputees.