DIFFICULT TASK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21647, 13 November 1933, Page 10

DIFFICULT TASK

TRANSPORT* OF PATIENT ROUGH COUNTRY CROSSED FIVE STREAMS ON JOURNEY Exceptional difficulty was encountered by a member of the transport staff of the St. John Ambulance Association and an assistant on Saturday night, in carrying a patient from his homo in tho Htinua district to tho ambulance which was waiting some distance away on tho road.' Ivxtroinely rough country had to be coven d and primitive bridges spanning a numl-.r of streams added to the difficulties of tho ambulance men. The ambulance left the Kutland Street headquarters at 6.10 p.m. and made a good run to Hunua. Fnfortunately, it was found impossible 10 drive to the patient's home, which is on a hill some distance from the road, and the two ambulance men, carrying a collapsable stretcher, set out across country. The patient was a man weighing about 16st., and the driver and his assistant had no light task in carrying him on the stretcher, owing to tho broken nature of the country. On arrival at the first of five streams to be crossed, it was found impossible to negotiate the narrow log bridge with the patient on the stretcher. The ambulance driver was obliged to hoist the patient, a bigger man than himself, on to his back, while his assistant, walking behind, carried tho stretcher and flashed an electric torch on the bridge, which was successfully crossed. The patient was .carried on tho stretcher to the next bridge, where it was again found necessary for tho driver to carry him across on his back. A climax was reached when a suspension bridge, consisting of two planks each six inches wide, supported by wire, was encountered. With the patient 011 his back, the driver crossed step by step, with the bridge swaying beneath him in a perilous manner. The movement of the unsteady bridge prevented the assistant from holding the torch still, and the driver, who was himself approaching exhaustion, almost missed his footing several times. The difficult crossing was finally accomplished without accident, and in all five streams were crossed by means of narrow bridges before the road was reached. The carrying of the patient from his home to the ambulance occupied three-quarters of an hour, and the whole journey from the city and back, involving some 64 miles' travelling, took three and three-quarter hours, over an hour more than would normally be required for a trip of a similar distance.