Devotion to Duty

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 121, 24 May 1937, Page 3

Devotion to Duty

MEDICAL MEN IN SCOTLAND A GO-year-old doctor in a north of Scotland town received a telephone call to attend a patient in a village 10 miles away. The roads were blocked with snow, and a motor car was useless. So the doctor walked over the moors through deep snow, climbing 900 ft on the way. The journey took six hours. After a uight’s rest in the village he walked home, resuming his work an hour after his arrival. This is just one of the many instances of the devotion to duty shown by doctors and nurses in remote parts of Scotland. Hero arc other facts gathered from the Highlands and isles. A doctor was summoned from a cinema to attend two climbers who lay injured on a mountain ledge 2,000 ft. from the base. Ho climbed the mountain in darkness and spent most of the night attending the youths and helping to carry them to the foot of tho mountain. One doctor has climbed mountains in lihe Cairngorms six times in the past few years to attend climbers. It is estimated that Highland doctors spend half of their professional life travelling to the homes of their patients. In tho western Highlands a doctor travelled 120 miles over rough cart tracks in a day to see three patients. Another doctor, who had to plod over trackless moors to attend gamekeepers, took his bearings from mountain top* to avoid being lost. Heavy mist is one of the greatest dangers doctors (have to face in winter A doctor arrived at a part of the coast where a motor boat had been ordered to take him across five miles ot rough sea to an island. The only boat available was a 16ft open boat with an outboard motor, and the “crew” was a youtlh of 17. For a moment the doc-| tor was tempted to return home, but the case was urgent, so he jumped into the boat. Both were drenched. The pati-j ent was surprised to seo the doctor. A doctor forced is way by motor boat up a loch through thin ice. Two hours later, when his visit was ended, he was unable to return by motor boat, as the' ice on tho surface of the loch was three inches thick. A journey to a patient may mean travelling by train, car and boat. On some occasions horses and sledges have to be used. Doctors along the northern coastline are often called by radio to attend men injured at sea. Sometimes they go out by motor boat to the ship and are hauled on board by a rope.