REMARKABLE OPERATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18457, 21 July 1923, Page 7

REMARKABLE OPERATION.

A CASE IN ADELAIDE.

SAVING RETURNED SOLDIER.

m What is claimed to be the only operation of its kind ever performed in Australia was carried out at the Keswick Military Hospital, Adelaide, recently.

• The patieht, Frederick William Grosser, is a railway porter, living at Torrensville. In 1917, while on active service. Grosser was severely wounded, receiving shrapnel bullets in one side of the neck, and just escaping death through medical attention being immediately available, though internal bleeding and aneurism resulted, and Grosser had to be three times operated upon in England'. . On his return to Australia, after resuming his civil occupation, he experienced trouble in the upper region of one arm, .causing pain and ■ rendering the limb partially useless. Layers of congealed blood spread through his system, pressing on the nerves, and the man's condition gradually became grave. Eventually, as a last resort, to save his life, the operation took place, lasting five hours. Both Grosser and his wife were prepared for the worst, but tho patient displayed remarkable courage during the operation,, which was performed by two leading surgeons, assisted by three other doctors. '..•■.::

The operation had only been previously undertaken, it was stated, on dead bodies, for expsriment, and not* hitherto in Australia on a living person. . ,'••. The decay .of a main artery necessitated '. the opening of the flesh from the neck to- below the bottom of the heart, and for hours the patient's life hung by a thread.-;: . ■' -- : .

; It now is reported that ... although . in great pain, which is . being, minimised by morphia, Grosser's recovery is expected. ' ■■" ■ ,-;, .'.'• • '-