VICTIM OF HEAT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23272, 15 February 1939, Page 16

VICTIM OF HEAT

MOTHER THOUGHT DEAD SON ARRANGES FUNERAL REMARKABLE RECOVERY [from OUR own correspondent] SYDNEY. Feb. 10 When Mary Ann Shepherd, aged 70, collapsed in a Sydney street during the heat-wave, her son, a conductor on a tram which was passing at the time, stopped tp see why a crowd had gathered. He saw his mother on the footpath and was told she was dead. Leaving her in.the hands of ambulance officers, the son left for his depot and was given three days off duty. lio was making arrangements for tho funeral when he learned that his mother was alive. She been revived by ambulance men, using a carbondioxide pocket respirator and artificial respiration. < "To my mind it was a miracle, said the son, Edward Shepherd. "My deep- ' est thanks, go out to the ambulance men, who apparently never accept death until they have done all in their power to revive a person." Mrs. Shepherd was carried to the doorway of..a shop when she collapsed. At this time trains were returning to the Waverlcy depot, and her son was on one of them. "Someone who knew, me told me that it was my mother who was dead," Shepherd said. "I saw a doctor there and spoke to him. Two tramway men, who have ambulance certificates, thought she was dead. Practically everybody did. Trams were running only seconds apart, and as there was nothing else i could do, I got on my tram, so that the lines could be cleared. "My mother is in a burial fund, and I got her papers, with a view to arranging for the funeral. Inch 1 was told my mother had revived in the ambulance. Just before the ambulance reached the gates she opened her eves. n The sparklet pocket _ resuscitator, now standard equipment in Sydney ambulances, has successfully revived persons who have shown all signs of death through gas, electric shock and drowning-