DOCTOR LANDED AT PITCAIRN

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25870, 1 August 1949, Page 6

DOCTOR LANDED AT PITCAIRN

EMERGENCY OPERATION ON ISLANDER VESSEL RETRACES COVRSE (New Zealand Press Association. > AUCKLAND, July 31. Retracing her course for 200 miles, the Port Line’s motor-ship Port Pirie recently landed her doctor at Pitcairn Island so that he could perform an emergency operation on an islander. The Port Pirie was on her way from Napier to the United Kingdom, and an urgent appeal to her for aid was sent by radio from Pitcairn. The “New Zealand Herald’s’’ correspondent at Pitcairn says that this wai the second time in a few days that -the island had had to seek help from chips' doctors. The first was when the resident nurse ‘ had a difficult bronchial case. She used the radio to consult the ship’s doctor of the Empire Star, then on her way to Auckland from the United Kingdom. Discussions between the ship and the shore were held for two days. Then, as the Empire Star moved out of range, responsibility for helping the nurse was handed over to the doctor on the Port Pirie, which was steaming up the Pacific from Napier. , The patient had just recovered when another islander suddenly developed appendicitis. As the nurse could not operate an urgent appeal was sent to the Port Pirie. The ship was then 200 miles northward of Pitcairn. It turned about and went back to the island’s anchorage. A whaleboat was sent out from Pitcairn and the ship's doctor, first officer, and a cadet made a wet trip ashore in rough weather. The doctor confirmed the nurse’s diagnosis, and the little Pitcairn health clinic was quickly transformed into an operating theatre.

The ship had arrived off the island at 8.30 a.m. By 4.30 p.m. the operation had been declared successful, the patient was resting easily, and the doctor and his assistants were back on their ship. Although doctors from passing ships have been called to Pitcairn before to treat urgent cases, this was the first operation of its kind performed on the island. The resident nurse is an Australian, whose appointment is arranged between the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific and the Seventh Day Adventist Church. She has two partly trained Pitcairn girls as assistants.