OPERATION AT SEA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19760, 10 April 1926, Page 8

OPERATION AT SEA.

YOUNG OTAGO DOCTOR'S

FEAT

SAVES LIFE OF SHIP’S COOK.

In the perfectly-appointed operating theatre and under the all-revealing rays of powerful electric lights the performanee of an operation for appendicitis, though marvellous to the layman, is a comparatively simple matter to the surgeon, but to find oneself confronted by a very sick man suffering from appendicitis on board a tossing shin 1000 miles from land and to be compelled to operate immediately, using a hastily improvised instrument. is a much inr”? difficult and perturbing problem. Add to these unfavourable circumstances tiie comparative inexperience of a shin’s doctor of 23 smumeis, and it is not difficult to imagine a situation fraught with difficulties and daugeis from which the strongest would quickly shrink. , , It was in iust snch a predicament tnat Dr Walton 11. Bromner, of Dunedin, ship s surgeon on the Port Bowen, cn route to London, found himself recently. V 1 1" daunted by tli£ odds arrayed against him, this vounc doctor operated on a member of the shin’s company for appendicitis, and carried out the work with such dexterity and efficiency, despite crude instruments and a heavy swell, that his patient recovered without any prolonged illness. Dr Bremncr left Auckland on the Port Bowen on January 7 ns ship’s doctor, in which capacity he hoped to pay bis way to London, where he intends taking up nost-eraduate study in one of the hospitals in that city. . All went well on board until the assistant cook became suddenly ill. The diagnosis showed him to be suffering from acute appendicitis, which made an immediate operation imperative if the sufferer s life were to be saved. On overhauling his surgical implements the doctor found that he was minus a pair of retractors, used to damn against the sides, of the incision to hold it open while the appendix is removed. These were constructed by the ship’s engineer after working all night on a pair of steel rods found in the junk metal locker. They were sterilised by means of immersion in boiling water for several hours, and on the .afternoon following the cook’s sudden illness everything was in readiness. With the ship ploughing through the long swells about a week’s sail from Panama, and the thermometer in the cabin registering lOSdeg. Dr Bremncr prepared to undertake bis task. He called to bis assistance Miss Eugenie Giroulihac. a graduate nurse, and Miss Elizabeth Barnett, a student nurse, and with the help of the chief steward and the chief officer the operation was performed in 40 minutes. The courage and re ircefulness of this young graduate certainly saved tiie life of a ship’s cook, who is now quite well and extremely grateful to his youthful saviour. Dr Bremner is an old Otago boy, and is the son of the late Mr Bremner. of the firm of Milne and Bremner, in this city. He graduated from the Otago University, doing further work in the Christchurch Hospital before starting for England. His feat is no mean one, and none will recognise the merit of his performance more readily than members of the profession to which he belongs.