STIMULATOR STOPPED

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30626, 17 December 1964, Page 1

STIMULATOR STOPPED

(N Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, Dec. 16. A 51-year-old boy was rushed by plane from Oamaru to Green Lane Hospital, Auckland, yesterday, because his life-giving heart stimulator had stopped working. He is the first child in New Zealand to be fitted with a transistorised pacemaker, obtained for him from the United States and attached at Green Lane Hospital. »

The boy’s doctor advised the hospital on Tuesday of the defect in the pacemaker, and was told to send the boy to Auckland immediately. While the child was undergoing tests at Oamaru Hospital preparations were made to charter the North Otago Aero Club’s Cessna ambulance. The plane, at the time, was flying at 10.000 feet in the Mount Cook area with another case—a child with severe whooping cough. The aircraft was recalled and refuelled and left with the boy and his mother at 1.50 p.m. The boy's condition then was “quite comfortable.” The

Cessna’s mission was to connect with, a Viscount at Christchurch which waited for the ambulance aircraft to arrive. This was the boy’s fourth hospital trip to Auckland. He was found to have a hole in his heart as a baby and was operated on at Green Lane. But a complication made the fitting of the pacemaker necessary. The boy responded well and the Auckland surgeons were pleased with their experiment. He was sent to school, and has since been active and well. The pacemaker was to be renewed in four to five years, but the fault developed after 18 months* use.