PATIENT DISAPPEARS

Grey River Argus, 27 August 1946, Page 6

PATIENT DISAPPEARS

From Waiting Ambulance UNUSUAL INCIDENT AT AUCKLAND. AUCKLAND, Aug. 25. After crashing over a low bank in a motor-car near Henderson on Saturday afternoon, the driver, although suffering from serious head injuries, disappeared from a St. John ambulance outside the main entrance of the Auckland Hospital juse before he was to be admitted. Up to a late hour he had not been traced by the police. The motor-car, owned by Mr Noel Gardiner, was taken from High Street on Saturday afternoon.,. The driver, whose identity is now known to the police, was attended by a local doctor and placed in an ambulance, which was passing through from Helensville to Auckland with a medical case. It was thought he was suffering from concussion and possibly a fractured skull. After arriving at the Auckland Hospital with his two patients, the ambulance driver went inside to report and came out with a doctor. The injured man was still lying on a stretcher in the ambulance when the doctor interviewed him. He refused to disclose his name. The doctor decided that he should be admitted to hospital immediately and then went away. The ambulance was then driven a few yards towards the main doors of the hospital and the diivei went to the oflice to ascertain the ward to which the man was to he taken. When he returned a minute or two later the patient had disother patient in the ambulance stated that, as soon as the driver left the injured man said he was going over the i’oad to buy some cigarettes. He then left the stretcher. He was fully clothed and he left behind an overcoat.