STRANGE SURGERY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 31 December 1924, Page 9

STRANGE SURGERY

INSTRUCTIONS BY TKLEGT A I’ll POLICEMAN ‘'OPERATES (By “T.D." in the Sydney .Sun) When three doctor:? knelt in a busy Sydney street and liberated Conrad Phillips by amputating his leg, which bad been crushed by a tram, they carried rmt one of the most remarkable operations on record. But different as.the conditions were from those of the wellappointed operating theatre with anaesthetiics at hand, they at least had tho Instruments for the work as well as the surgical skill.

F.ir back in the bush and at sea. operations .have been successfully carried out with the queerest makeshift implements. and in some cases by amateurs who received their guidance at very Jong range.

Strangest of all, perhaps, was tho operation by telegraph on Walter Darcy at Hall’s-Crock, in the far north-west of Western Australia. The three Darcy brothers had a cattle station in that region, one of the remotest parts • of Australia. Walter Darcy was badly injured by a fail -from Ids horse, and his brothers took him into Hall's Creek.

Nowadays Hall s Creek.is one of the stations of the Inland Mission, and 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 Irini, but it goon became apparent that an operation was desirable.

DID THE JOB WELL The postmaster at Halt’s Creek was equal to the emergency, lie put himself in touch by telegraph witii Dr. Holland. of the general hospital in Perth, If 00 miles away. He described the symU ms as fully as he could to Dr. Holland, who decided that, an operation was necessary, and would have to be carried out long before a surgeon could arrive. A trifle like? that did not put the. post, paster out. He'telegraphed to Dr Holland that if full instructions were sent over the wire lit: would attempt the operation. a difficult and delicate one at best, with the resources at his command. So. acting or. the detailed description of what should be done which Dr. Holland telegraphed from Perth, he operated on the patient. He' finished - the job in good shape and his patient seemed to improve. Eventually, however, Walter Darcy died, blit an examination showed that death wasiiii ■ no way the result-'of any failure of* the operation, which had been admirably' carried out. The patient had •had an attack of fever, which,' in his weakened state, had proved fatal.

' SADDLER .NI.4E.EE GOOD An operation by telegraph with a .luckier esrhKKma took place a couple of years ago &fc Alice Springs. The patient was a siccfcsaait who was brought into the township from one of the stations. In this case the saddler carried mlt "the operation, acting under the instructions of a doctor in Adelaide, nearly 1000 miles away. The saddler used one of the tools of'lris trade as the operating' instrument-, and it* was not a very long time; before the. patient- was back at his work on the station.

In the back blocks of the Northern Territory a- police officer" may be the soliW representative of authority over an Area larger than Tasmania. Sometimes he is called on to act- as physician and surgeon, art well as to do dozens of other things. ; : For- Instance, -a senior - constable, who v. as ‘Stationed at Timber Creek, out tn the Victoria River country,, had quite a jbt 'o'f practice one wav and another. He could not, no' matter 1 ' how difficult , tiu•ease, obtain instructions by telegraph, for neither Boorooloola nor Timber Creek has a telegraph line within huu« ,dreds of miles, , !

' T Minor v amputations,! pitch, as taking oft a finger, ho took in his stride, "ill addition to treating beri-be.ri and other diseases. But ho will not easily forget one operation—the amputation of a bad-ly-crushed leg with a tomahawk.

!.. CHISEL AS INSTRUMENT Far,,a patient tp. operate on himself requires, oho would’ imagine, ft good deal of nerve. Yet cases of self-ampu-'tation arc occasionally met- with in ' the bush. In those cases otte reason for the amputation is snake-bite, and -it is usually a mailer of cutting off a finger. ' ,*■ A man or boy is hitten by a sniikh while alone in the bush. His first idea 4’sf. to prevent the yenonr- injection - from spreadng tthrough his veins;-So if lie fe ihitten oiv>£ linger! he-puts it*Dn afsturtip or log and chops it off with an axe'or tomahawk if lie has one handy". *

ft If not, it <is apt to 'be': a, slow ' 'and painful business of sawing the finger oft iv.lil.fV' a probably .blunt knife. Operations at- sea present- another set of problems. On the Port Victor, which arrived at Sydney on December 3, 1320, !a seamen developed a bad abscess'' in ibe enrf ..Therei were two ' doctors on jboafd'— Dr Brangfove, bt New Zealand, and Dr. Hubbe. of Adelaide. But they were not carrying surgical instruments with them. < a | ; . ;

But with the assistance of the chief engineer, and with. chisels borrowed from the. carpenter, they successfully operated. It took two hours, and the (vessel, went..dead slow. f'. When it beeanto clear that the removal' of tbs; apepndix was imperative in thei case' of Ernest Mason, the barber on the Euripides, on a. sea voyage to Australia in September, 1921, the eapjtain proposed to put into Dakeiy the nearest port.. But the patient insisted that this was a waste o l time, when Dr. Weigali, of Melbourne, and-Dr. M’Millan could do the job at once. So lie was operated oir out in the ocean, and remarked when lie reached Sydney that he was ‘‘as fit. as a. fiddle.”