MODERN RESOURCES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22064, 21 September 1933, Page 13

MODERN RESOURCES

FLIGHT FOR A LIFE EFFORTS IN VAIN. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 9. Air dynamics, motor traction, and skilled surgery were the modern wonder* which were linked in a desperate endeavour to save the life of a young man whose spine had been fractured in • motor lorry accident. Charles Russell Napper, 21, a member of a well-known Clarence River district family, was one of 21 persons injured when a motor lorry, carrying a picnic party, swerved and overturned at Yamba, on the North Coast. He was taken by ambulance to Madean District Hospital, and his parents were informed that he would have a much greater chance of recovery if they could get him to Sydney by aeroplane. ■' i j Heavy rains a few days previously had flooded the aerodrome, and there wa# no other aerodrome large enough for the landing of the plane wjiich had been chartered by long-distance telephone from Sydney. A smaller plane would have been'useless, for Napper had to be carried in a lying position, possible only in a large plane. New., plans had. to be formulated when it was found that the South Grafton aerodrome (the nearest to the Maclean Hospital) was flooded. The pilot was instructed by wireless to, land it at Coff’s Harbour, the nearest aerodrome large enough. Goff’s Harbour is 60 miles from Maclean, and it was necessary to take Napper that distance by motor ambulance. Doctors at Maclean gave. Napper treatment to keep him sleepy throughout the nerve-wracking journey, which proved the worst part of the fight to- save Napper # life. Rain had played havoc with the roads, and the average speed of the motor ambulance was only five miles an hour. Even >at that rate, and despite the effect of sleep-inducing drugs, Napper suffered tortures throughout the long nightmare journey. . The ambulance found: the , aeroplane waiting for them,at Coff’s Harbour. The injured man-was lifted from ambulance to plane oil a sheet, held, perfectly, flat and rigid by four men, and it was so held for the* 300 miles flight, to Sydney. Napper was drowsy and almost unconscious for most of the, flight, and was in far less pain than during the ambulance trip. The 300 miles were flown in three hours. Then came the pilot’s most difficult task—-that of landing the .big aeroplane without jarring. It was ,then almost dark. He circled the ; aerodrome at Mascot, Sydney, several times, firing a Verey light to warn ground officials to clear the runway of email machines before he came down. It was one of Pilot Young’s finest landings, with scarcely * bump, and as the big machine taxied to a halt an ambulance, previously arranged for, sped up alongside it. He was lifted into the ambulance and rushed to Prince Alfred Hospital, where he wa* immediately given the most billed attention in Sydney. But the great fight for the young man’s life Ho rallied temporarily after his arrival in hospital, but the end came within 24 hours of his admission. Although that combination of modern resources failed it proved emphatically what a boon they can be in a country like Australia, where distances are great.