Antarctic Doctor Nearly Better

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31584, 23 January 1968, Page 1

Antarctic Doctor Nearly Better

Dr J. Brotherhood, who was flown to Christchurch from the Antarctic early in December after being injured in a fall, expects to be discharged from the Burwood Hospital in 10 days.

Dr Brotherhood suffered fractured vertebrae when he and a companion tumbled over a cliff during a “white-out” while they were on a field trip about five miles from the British base at Halley Bay. The rescue flight by United States Navy Hercules aircraft covered 5600 miles.

Dr Brotherhood intends to tour New Zealand before returning to England at the end of March.

People had been remarkably kind to him while he had been in hospital, Dr Brotherhood said yesterday.

“I have had letters from complete strangers all over New Zealand wishing me well, and over Christmas I received better treatment than anyone could have wished for,” he said.

He had been impressed by the nursing and medical care he had received, and by the friendship of members of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Antarctic Society, who had looked after him very well.

In England Dr Brotherhood will complete his thesis on the medical research he was carrying out at Halley Bay. “I was employed as a doctor, although I earned my living there as a physiologist,” he said.

Later in April he will go to the Falkland Islands for six months as a relieving doctor. “After that, I really don’t know,” he said. “If 1 remain in clinical medicine I would like to oo surgery. If not, I would like to specialise in the physiology of athletics.” Dr Brotherhood said that in the last year the Halley Bay base had been rebuilt

“It is probably the biggest building programme carried out by the British Antarctic Survey in the Antarctic. We erected seven 70ft by 20ft huts all connected by tunnels. This took us about eight weeks. “Unlike the Americans’, our construction is not all prefabricated; Our huts are of a much heavier construction. They are designed to have a useful life of at least five years, although we hope they will last eight to 10 years, by which time they will be about 40ft below snow,” said Dr Brotherhood. The medical facilities at Halley Bay were • about the same as those aboard a British warship, he said. Throughout his stay there the health of the men had been extremely good. When he was the doctor on Signy Island he had had to assist in an appendix operation an hour and a half after he arrived there. Within 12 hours of taking over at Halley Bay he had had to carry out a similar operation. “It was a fine introduction to both bases,” he said.