STRANGE SURGERY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 21 November 1924, Page 8

STRANGE SURGERY.

INSTRUCTIONS BY TELEGRAPH

POLICEMAN OPERATES

xxn y 1,1 t ie s y dn ey Sun.) VVhen three doctors knelt in a busy Sydney street and liberated Conrad Phillips by amputating his leg, which had been crushed by a tram, they carried out one of the most remarkable operations on record. But different as the conditions were from those of the well-appointed operating theatre with an,aesthetics at hand, they at least had the instruments for the work as well as the surgical skill. Far back in the busk and at sea operations have been successfully oarnea out wiwr the queerest makeshift implements, .'and in some cases by amateurs who leceived their guidance at very long range. Strangest of all, perhaps, was the operation by telegraph, on Walter Darcy at Hall’s Greek, in the far north-west of Western Australia.. The three Darcy brothers bad a ciattle station in that region, one of the remotest parts of Australia. Walter DJarcy was badly injured by a fall from his horse, and Ins brothers took him into riailirs Creek.

Nowadays, Hall’s Creek is one of the stations of the Inland Mission, anc! has a hospital and nurses. But in those days it lacked these-elements of civilisation Darcy received the best attention that could be given to him but it soon became apparent that an operation was desirable. The postmaster at Hall’s Creek was equal to the emergency. He put liim'll n U \ tou „ eh b y telegraph with Dr. Holland of the General Hospital in Perth, 1800 miles, away. He described the symptoms as fully as he, could to rtr. Holland, who decided that an operation was necessary, and would have to be carried out long before a surgeon could a,rrive.

A trifle like that did not put the Pi° S ii a '^ er He telegraphed to Dr. Holland that if full instructions were sent over the wire he would attempt the operation, a. difficult and delicate one at best, with the resources at his command. So, acting on the detailed description of. what .should be done, vvlncn Dr. Holland telegraphed .from terth, he openated on the p!a,tient. He finished the job in good shape and his patient seemed to improve Eventually, however, Whiter Darcy cued, but an 'examination showed that death was in no way the result of an'/ failure of _ the operation, which had been admifiaibly oarried out. The patient had had an attack of fever, which, m his weakened state, had proved fatal. An operation by telegraph with 'a uekier outcome took place a couple of yeans ago at Alice Springs. The patient was a stockman who was bipught in to the t-ownsliip from one of the stations. In this case the saddler carried out the operation, actjng under the instructions- of a doctor in Adelaide, nearly 1000 miles away. The .saddler used one of the tools of his trade as the operating instrument, and it was not a. very long time before the patient was back at his work m the station.

In the back-blocks of the Nbrthe-n Territory a police officer may be the sole repre.sent.aive of authority over an area. larger than Tasmania. Sometimes he is called on to act as phvseian and surgeon, as well as to do dozens of other things.

lor instance, a senior constable who n’ais stationed first at Booro-olooia and then ‘at Timber Creek, out in the Vic-; toria River country, had quite a lot of practice one way and another. He could not. no matter how difficult- the ■■nse, obtain instructions by telegra.nh. for nei tiler Bcorooloola- nor Ti mho.’' Creek lias a telegraph line within hundreds of miles.

Minor amputations, such as taking off a finger, he took in his stride, in addition to treating beri-beri and other lieeases. But lie will not easily forget 0,1 j operation—the amputation of a ba y-cushej leg with a tomahawk. lor a. patient to operate on liimse’f 'eq lires, one would imagine, a. good deal of. nerve. Yet cases of 'sellamputation are occasionally met with in the bush. Tu these cases the reason for the amputation is snakebite, and it is usually a matter of cutting off a finger.

A mail or boy is bitten by a. snake while alone in the bush. His.'first idea is to prevent the venom injected into bite from spreading through, his veins. Ro if he is bitten on a finger lie puts it on a stump or log. and chons it oil with an axe or tomahawk if has one handv.

11 not, it is apt to he a slow and pali 1 til business of sawing the finger off with a probably blunt knife. Operations at sea presept another cot of problems. On the Port A r iclor, udiiob arrived at Rvdney oil December 1923. a seaman developed a bad abco<y\s in the ear. There were two doctors on board —Dr. Brangrove, of

New Zealand, and Dr. Hubbe, of Adelaide. But they were not ■ Carryingsurgical instruments with them. “ But with the assistance of the chief engineer, and with, chisels borrowed tmm the carpenter, they successfully operated. It took two hours, and the vessel went dead slow. • When it became clear that the removal of the appendix was imperative ill the case of Ernest* Mason, the barber on the Euripides, on 'a . sea Australia in September, tne captain proposed to put into Dakar, the nearest port. But the patient insisted that this was a waste of time, when Dr. Weigall, of Melbourne, and Dr. McMillan could do the job at once.. So he was operated on out m the ocean, and remarked when he reached Sydney that he was “as fit as a fiddle.”