Christchurch blood given to prisoners

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32783, 7 December 1971, Page 3

Christchurch blood given to prisoners

(By DAVID BARBER, N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent) BONG SON (South Vietnam), December 6. The lives of two Viet Cong women prisoners may have been saved by transfusions of blood given at Christchurch Hospital for use in Vietnam.

The transfusions were given by the New Zealand Services Medical Team at Bong Son Hospital, in central South Vietnam, after the badlyinjured prisoners had been brought in. The blood was given by volunteers at Christchurch Hospital after Dr R. D. Scott, a former team leader and now in charge of the hospital’s accident and emergency department, had appealed for supplies for Bong Son. Two shipments, 87 pints in all, were flown to Vietnam by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Colonel J. W. Ardagh, a Christchurch surgeon and the leader of the team at Bong Son said that he had approved the use of the blood for the Viet Cong prisoners. “PRACTICALLY DEAD” He said that one of the women, aged 30, had been badly shot in the arm when she tried to escape after being captured by the South Vietnamese Army. “She was practically dead when she came in.”

She was given two pints of blood front the New Zealand supplies. “Without it she would have died, and I don’t think the people who gave the blood would have wanted her to die,” said Colonel Ardagh. “We are quite proud of our claim that we make no distinctions about patients brought in here. They are all human beings ,and our job is to save life,” he added. "I woudn’t mind a pint of my blood going to a V.C. (VietCongV’ As’the woman, said to be the treasurer of a Viet Cong district council—an important unit in the Communist political infrastructure—improved, her foot was manacled to her hospital bed at the request of South Vietnamese police. After being released from the hospital this week, she will face a minimum two-year detention term. BADLY BATTERED The other girl, aged 16, was captured at the same time, and found to be carrying Viet Cong documents. She was badly battered around the head and body when admitted to the hospital —the team was told that she had tried to escape. She was bleeding internally into her lungs, because of chest injuries, and was given a transfusion of one pint of the New Zealand blood. Colonel Ardagh said: “A

side effect of our actions is that we have shown both girls that we have moral values and compassion for all people. It may be that we have helped to change their views about the war.” He said that the New Zealand blood was given because there were no other supplies on hand at the time. The hospital does not have a blood bank and supplies are used from any available source when urgently needed. SUPPLY WITHDRAWN The New Zealanders at Bong Son hospital usually have obtained blood from patients’ relatives—although many are reluctant to be donors—or used outdated American blood from a nearby United States military hospital. Because of the withdrawal, the American supply is no longer available. The New Zealand team, which is being withdrawn this month, will leave some of the Christchurch donation behind. Colonel Ardagh said that no further shipments from New Zealand were planned.

Earthquake recorded.—An earthquake felt in New Plymouth at 6.48 a.m. yesterday had a magnitude of 4.75 oh the Richter scale, said a spokesman for the seismological observatory in Wellington. It was also felt in Nelson.—(P.A.)