DOCTOR HERO

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 December 1945, Page 8

DOCTOR HERO

' AMAZING IMPROVISATIONS Many Australian prisoners of war owe their lives to the brilliant surgery and clever improvisation of Lieutenant-Colonel A. E. Coates, of the 2/13th A.G.H., former SurgeonSuperintendent' of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, who in 1942 chose to remain with the troops as a prisoner rather than escape the clutches of the Japanese. Just before Singapore fell Colonel Coates was ordered to leave. When he reached Java, Singapore had surrendered. He was due to leave for Australia by plane, but decided that his medical duty to the troops made it necessary for him to remain behind. Subsequently, he became senior doctor with prisoners of war in Siam, working down the Bangkok-Moul-fri-eih railway, on the const: uction of which thousands died. Coates used a sharpened teaspoon to scrape out tropical ulcers from the shinbones of hundreds of Australians’ legs. The men bore them under the terrific pain vzhile the doctor joked with them, often reciting poetry. He always had a cigarette for them after their ordeal. With a Dutch chemist, Captain van Boxel, Coates worked feverishly, day and night, to concoct some form of anaesthetic to relieve the unbearable pain of amputations. After numerous experiments, they extracted alcohol from sake and wine and added cocaine received from the Japanese .They condensed the various fluids until they had a working spinal anaesthetic so successful that they knew exactly how much to give for each minute it was desired to keep the patient under. Many one-legged Australians today, who call themselves “Coates’ Boys” owe their lives to his skill and initiative and this vital discovery. Ingenious methods were applied to obtain gut for sutures. When possible cows and other beasts were killed and gut extracted from their intestines. Coates is now in charge of the main hospital in Sydney, where the troops are awaiting homeward-bound' aircraft. At one stage Coates and his orderlies were amputating at the rate of five a day among the railway construction gangs, so bad were the tropical ulcers Altogether, he performed about 500 operations. He says his paiients were the pluckiest and most courageous any doctor ever had. After some operations Coates would conduct a postmorten on the leg to prove gangrene had set in, and the patient would hobble over and join in the discussion. The boys made ciudo wooden legs of bamboo on which they became remarkably adept. One of the most amazing operations by Coates was performed recently on an Ameican, who had a tumor on the brain. Coates drilled a hole in his skull with a dentist’s drill and let the tumor bulge out tnrough the head.! Immediately on the capitulation of the Japanese the American was flown out direct to the United States for an urgent operation to save his life.