ACCIDENTS AND DEATHS.

Evening Star, Issue 13099, 4 November 1908, Page 4

ACCIDENTS AND DEATHS.

Mrs Isabel Braund, wife of an officer on the steamer Komala, died in a private hospital in Wellington. At the inquest it was shown that deceased bad suffered from melancholia, and had taken nitric acid. She recently came out from England, and had been married only five weeks. A verdict was returned of suicide while of unsound mind. A serious accident occurred on the collier Waipori at Lyttelton on Monday afternoon. A basket of coal, which was being hoisted from No. 2 hold, collided with a derrick and capsized, ami a piece of coal weighing half a hundredweight struck Alexander Greer (who was working below) on the head, inflicting terrible injuries. Greer was taken to the Lyttelton casulty ward, where he was attended to by three doctors, who were very much handicapped owing to the lack of facilities. Dr Guthrie afterwards spoke strongly regarding the disgraceful state'of the ward. The man had to be operated on on an old and quite out-of-date operating table, which collapsed in the middle of the operation..; Mr G. Laurensbn, who inspected the ward with the secretary of the Waterside Workers’ Union, sent the following telegram to the Minister of Public Health:—“ Hospital Board have still done nothing about our local accident ward. There was a serious accident yesterday, and I have just inspected the room where ,the dying man is. The floor is all worm-eaten, and with two large holes in it. The operating table is of the most primitive description, and there is neither hot nor cold Water in the operating room. There is. a bath with cold Water tap, and nothing else. The building and appliances are a disgrace to the community. After years of agitation the Board seem determined to do nothing. Can the Health Department not interfere on the ground,* of common humanity?"