MERCY FLIGHT FROM WIGRAM

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30092, 28 March 1963, Page 17

MERCY FLIGHT FROM WIGRAM

Injured Man Taken To Dunedin A Devon aircraft from the Royal New Zealand Air Force station. Wigram, last evening flew a young man who had been injured in a tractor accident, from Christchurch to Dunedin. The man, who was transferred from the Christchurch Hospital to the Dunedin Hospital, is Bruce Flood, of 460 Worcester street. Mr Flood was pinned under a tractor for nearly seven hours on Monday when it overturned as he was working in a plantation near Rolleston.

Yesterday a St. John ambulance took Mr Flood to the Christchurch Airport in the early afternoon, but it was found impracticable to fly him to Dunedin in a light aircraft. After permission had been obtained he was taken to Wigram and placed aboard a Devon.

The aircraft, flown by Flight Lieutenant R. M. Hancock, left Wigram at 5.15 p.m. and reached Dunedin about an hour later. It returned to Christchurch later in the evening. It is believed Mr Flood suffered kidney injuries in the accident. An artificial kidney machine is available in Dunedin.

Mr Flood was pulling logs from the plantation when the tractor overturned. A rabbiter found him, still conscious, seven hours later. Officers and inmates of the nearby Rolleston Prison rolled the tractor off him, and he was taken to hospital by the Burnham ambulance.

Mr Flood was placed on the seriously ill list at the Dunedin Hospital.

National Candidates.—-Mr N. D. Scurr has been chosen as National Party candidate for Dunedin Central (PA.)