DETAILS OF THE RESCUE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13545, 19 March 1906, Page 3 (Supplement)

DETAILS OF THE RESCUE.

FOUR DAYS CRAWLING TWO MILES. WELLINGTON, March 7.

Mr Robieson, of the Tourist Department, on receipt of news from Mr Donne that Mr Low was missing, took prompt measures to start a search party from the Hermitage, but apparently Guides Clarke and Graham had been anxious about his non-arrival, and they had found him before receiving the telegranis.to say that fears were, enter, tained for his safety. From a telegram received to-day it would appear that Clarke and Graham found Mr Low in a very weak condition, and had to carry him on a stretcher over 20 miles of crevassed glacier, rough moraine, and stony track to the Hermitage, a feat worthy of the highest praise.

To-night Mr Robieson, of the Tourist Department, received a telegram from Guide Clarke, giving interesting details of the rescue of Mr Low. Arrangements made by Guide Clarke and his comrades under most difficult circumstances, were perfect, and beyond all praise. Mr Low's injuries wore much more serious than at first stated, and the fact tha.t he lived through such vicissitudes seems more marvellous than ever. Guide Clarke's telegram is to the following effect:—Graham and I proceeded immediately to the Tasman. We picked up Green and another man at the Ball Glacier Hut, and travelled un the Tasman Glacier by lantern light. We found Low at the Do la Beche bivouac with a badly dislocated ankle and lascoraled knee, and other minor wounds. Ho was also extremely weak from exposure and want of food. He had only one day's food, and was out 10 days. We made him comfortablo, and I liberated a carrier pigeon to the Hermitage for medical and other help. I also sent one man down to confirm tho news, and left Green in attendance and to obtain a stretcher and medical necessaries from the Malte Brun Hut. Graham and I then proceeded to find tho West Coast searchers. We crossed tho pass oarlv. and in eight hours found the Rev. Mr Newton, Dr Marshall, and Mr Batson on the north spur above the Franz Jwcf Glacier. We told them the good news, and thev returned and conveyed it to tho settlement at the Forta. We returned to De la Berhe bivouao on Sunday, and found Dr King in attendance, also five men to assist in carrying Low down the glacier. On Monday we carried him to the Ball Glacier Hut. On Tuesday we arranged a comfortable bed on top of a rack-saddle, and took him on one of tho horses to the road (alsout 11 miles), where wo had a bucRV waiting. Thence- he was driven to Pukaki (40 miles), from Pukaki to Fairlie (56 miles), and thence hi train to Timaru Hospital, where he will probably have to romain for two months. His statement is that he crowed the Pace on Wednesday, 21st ult. at 10 o'clock, and descended halfway in safety. Then he slipped on a snow-covered couloir, and fell for 20ft, when ho struck a rock, and lost his ice axe (which we subsequentlv found). .It was on striking the rock that he sustained his injuries. He spent four days in crawling two miles over the moraine and broken ioa to the De La Beche bivouac. He was for two days exposed to an racoDtionally violent snowstorm. He dragged his swasr after him with a piece of rope. Finally, he spent six day 6 in pain under the De La Beche rock, until wo found him. Ho is at present in good spirits, and slowjj gaining stiengtbj.

TIMARU, March 7. Mr R. S. Low, who met with an accident in cross-in!; alone over the Alps by way of Grahnm's Saddle, arrived at. Fairlio today, and comes to tho Timaru Hospital tomorrow. Ho is much run down by his injury and 10 days' of privation. Mr Low speaks in the highest terms of admiration of the feat, of Guides Clarke and Graham in carrying him on a stretcher from the Malto brim bivouac across the Tasman Glacier to tho Ball hut and also of the great kindness shown, his by everyone. Mr Low will remain in the hospital to recuperate.

DEATH FROM BLOOD-POISONING. * •■ • WORDS OF WARNING. AUCKLAND. February 28. In giving evidence at an inquest yestcr« day Dr Craig expressed the opinion that a' person should not bo allowed to takecomplete charge of a, patient unless thoroughly skilled and educated. An ordinary person, or a majority of nurses, could not diagnose cases. If people continued to place maternity cases solely under persons who had not complete knowledge .of- medical work, thev might be prepared to find death occurring sometimes suddenly. Doctors hail no wish to mako money out of poor people. On the contrary,^'they would he pleased to see soma method whereby poor women could bo attended free of charge. These remarks were niado by tho doctor in consequence of a case in which Mrs Johnson had died after 'fonlinemeut from peptic absorption. Another witness, Dr Dudley, said that had a medical practitioner been called in early tJicre would have been a chance of saving her life. The certificated nurse engaged and others in the house had failed to notice symptoms of blood-poisoning, and consequently, when a doctor was called in ho immediately realised that it was only a matter of hours before the patient would die. The nurse had failed to do the most necessary thing in such cases—namely, to count the beats of the patient's pulse. It. appears that the midwife h:is only to get two dociors to slate that they have known her to do such work for a certain period and a lieenso is granted to her. The jury, in bringing in a verdict in accordance, with the medical evidence, added that they were of opinion that a midwife should have to pass an examination on the symptoms of blood-poisoning.