Reporter’s diary

Press, 22 October 1984, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Long-lost aunt A YOUNG Englishwoman, Miss Pamela MacKenzie, is trying to find out about her long-lost aunt, Mrs Maude Louisa Williams, who lived in Christchurch. Mrs Williams, nee Sebry, was bom in London on November 2, 1897. On January 14, 1919, she married Alfred Laurence Williams, who was serving in England with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and who had worked as a tanner in “civvy street.” The couple left England soon after their marriage to live in Christchurch, where a daughter,

named Pamela, was bom. Miss MacKenzie writes: “It is improbable that my aunt is still alive, since she would now be aged 87 and my cousin would be aged 64, but there may be someone who knew the family or relatives on my uncle’s side. I would be most grateful to hear from them.” Miss Mackenzie’s address is 632 A Romford Road, Manor Park, London El2. SAQ, England. Spitfire fund

A YOUNG Christchurch boy has given the last dollar of his pocket money to the Spitfire memorial restoration fund. “His mother and father gave 510 each. He was able to afford only a dollar, but it was apparently his last dollar,” said Mr Ronald G. Henry, of the restoration fund committee. This was only one of the more touching examples of

the public response to the burning of the Spitfire, he said. The restoration fund has almost reached $10,090, with many donations still to come. The Westpac Banking Corporation has given $5OO and made its facilities available to help the fund. The committee hopes to raise $30,000 to restore the badly damaged Spitfire. Any extra money will go to the Wigram aircraft museum trust, and to provide security protection for the restored Spitfire. Donations may be sent to Post Office Box 1434, Christchurch, or deposited at any Westpac branch. Wrong train

THE FRENCH satirical weekly, “Le Canard,” has not endeared itself to the French military authorities by relating how a demonstration of France’s new “rapid action force” was turned into a farce by the non-appearance of an ammunition train. With 200 helicopters, 232 tanks, 1000 other vehicles, 6500 men, and half a tactical air force waiting to perform in front of a gaggle of foreign military V.I.P.S, there were no shells or bullets. The missing ammunition eventually turned up 24 hours later, parked, because of a railway computer error, at a railway siding many kilometres away. Zut alors! But at least it wasn’t the real thing. Hat-trick

SOME MARVELLOUS tales are included in a new book, “Great Medical Disasters,” by Dr Richard Gordon. One

of Dr Gordon’s own favourites is about Robert Liston, a renowned London surgeon of the 1840 s, and reported to have the “fastest knife in the West End.” Liston, who wore a green coat and gumboots while performing operations, could amputate a leg in two minutes and a half. On one notable occasion, having shouted, “Time me, gentlemen, time me,” he amputated the unfortunate patient’s leg, slashing off his assistant’s fingers in the process. The assistant and the patient both died of gangrene and a distinguished spectator, who coat tails were slashed, dropped dead on the spot. Dr Gordon records this as the only known operation in history with a 300 per cent mortality rate. He refers to dozens of cases of people walking about’ with operating theatre ironmongery inside them. One of the most spectacular cases of surgical forgetfulness involved an American surgeon who always used a soup ladle for keeping the incision open while he worked. He forgot the ladle in the instrument count, and later an X-ray revealed that it had been stitched up inside the patient. Some years ago, the Medical Defence Union, which insures doctors, paid damages to a patient who had a car door handle stitched into his backside. The man had been flung up against the handle in a car accident. Doctors did not notice it and merely stitched up the gash. The handle was discovered after the man kept complaining that it hurt to sit down. —Peter Corrtfyr