Bush Orchids And Rose For Wanganella's Two Women

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30498, 21 July 1964, Page 2

Bush Orchids And Rose For Wanganella's Two Women

The only women on board the workers’ floating hostel-ship, Wanganella, anchored at remote Deep Cove, Doubtful Sound, are nursing sisters B. McCarthy, aged 28, and J. Swan, aged 23.

In keen attempts to win their hearts by 400 construction workers on board, they receive such gifts as wild perdung bush orchids, picked with the workers’ own calloused hands. • .

Sister Swan’s most touching present from a workman on the Manapouri power project is a heart, hand-made from perspex.

The two nursing sisters help make up the hospital’s medical staff, led by Dr. D. A. Milton, a man who is, of necessity, always ready to race off into the wilderness with a ready-packed emergency medical kit.

Their six-bed modern hospital on the Wanganella has been nick-named the “Mayo Clinic” by the construction workers.

Calls on the ship’s doctor and two sisters range from those of an ordinary general practitioner to those of a city hospital casualty station.

A Bergen-type pack rests constantly in the doctor’s office packed with morphia,

bandages, surgical instruments and a tourniquet. When Dr. Milton has some leisure hours between calls, he “fools around” practising melodies on a grand piano that occupies much of his ship’s bedroom. One day last week, before he could take a second mouthful of his lunch, he was rushed aboard an amphibian aircraft to attend a workman badly injured by a fall of rock.

Rugged An urgent call from one of seven telephones, spread out over the miles of New Zealand’s most rugged medical “practice,” might signal the doctor to a tunnelling casualty, machine mishap, or other type of industrial accident.

The only patient in the hospital last week-end was Mr K. Feather, of Christchurch, who was down with a bad

dose of influenza;' In appreciation for the personal medical attention of Sister Swan, he presented her with a rose.

The males an board the Wanganella, who outnumber the females at least 200-1, agree that the two nursing sisters boost their morale, and give a much-needed feminine touch to their lives.

Sister McCarthy said that

one way she had tried to brighten up the isolation for the men was by carefully selecting uniform colours. Uniforms She has three bright uniforms—one mauve, one lemon, and the other white. Sister Swan wears a white and blue uniform. More than anything else, Sister Swan finds that the “male” ship Wanganella does not cater for “nurses’ stockings, hair-perms, or a cake of soft soap.”. There is no corner chemist to run to. Both nurses are keen fishermen, a hobby that offers excellent sport in the blue cod and groper waters of the Sounds.

The Wanganella’s “Mayo Clinic” boasts such refinements as two X-ray machines and a fully-equipped operating theatre, capable of handling casualty victims in emergencies. So far there has been no major surgery required.