RESERVIST’S DEATH

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23413, 21 August 1941, Page 6

RESERVIST’S DEATH

. *- — • COMMENT OF MEDICAL DEPUTY

That every care had been taken in seeing that the reservist had been placed in the right grade was claimed by the Christchurch Regional Deputy (Dr C. T. Hand Newton), when commenting on the evidence of Dr. A. B. Pearson, .pathologist at the Christchurch Public Hospital, at the inquest on John Henry Knowles, a member of the National Military Reserve, who collapsed and died during manoeuvres. The medical evidence was that Knowles 'died of heart failure due to myocarditis. • . “It is a matter of opinion as to whether middle-aged men should be subjected to the severe strain involved in military manoeuvres, but this is a matter of policy which is not the concern of the medical board,” said Dr. Hand Newton. He had examined Knowles’s file and was satisfied that every care was taken to place him in his correct grade. "Serious heart disease , may be present without giving signs at a medical examination,” said Dr. Hand Newton. “The pathologist naturally can detect many conditions that elude the physician, but every care is taken by medical boards to reject doubtful recruits.”