FIGHT FOR YOUTH’S LIFE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3803, 1 February 1927, Page 38

FIGHT FOR YOUTH’S LIFE.

SYDNEY, January 13. A surgical operation in circumstances that must be unique was recently performed by leading specialists of this city on a 17-year-old youth who had been .the victim of a shooting accident in .the Burragorang Valley, a practically’ uninhabited stretch of rough country in the Blue Mountains. Unable to remove the stricken lad from the valley, four surgeons scrambled down a rough, narrow track and performed a serious operation in a bush hut. ~ The accident to the youth, Allan Crago, a member of a well-known Sydney family, occurred on Boxing Day. He was shooting with three other youths ■when a rifle accidentally exploded. The bullet pierced Crago, passing through his kidney. One of the party was a Boy Scout with knowledge of first aid. He attempted to carry Crago on his back to the only house for miles around—the rough bush hut of a cattle breeder. The carrying hurt Crago, so his companions improvised a rough stretcher and carried him to the hut. Three doctors were summoned from Wentworth Falls, and they had to clamber down six miles of- precipitous bush track, broken and rugged, with stretcher, medical instruments, and supplies of food. A nurse and two other doctors followed a few hours later. It was seen that Crago could not be moved. Rough shelters were improvised with tarpaulins, and the doctors continued to tend him, one never leaving his side for a fortnight. It was then seen that to save Crago’s life the operation of removing the pierced kidney must be performed. One of the leading surgeons of Macquarie street, the home of skilled and expensive surgeons, was summoned to Wentworth Falls, and like his fellow doctors, he was conducted down the rough six miles’ goat track. Once in the valley, work was begun. Tn the old tumbledown hut, the surgeons fought for the boy’s life. It was a reward for such high human enterprise that the operation should have been attended with success.. Though the boy is even yet too weak to travel to the top of the valley, and will be for several weeks, the daily news of his progress is that he is recovering well. The valley where the boy is lying is known as Kadumba, and 60 or 70 years ago bushrangers found the rough track down, and made it their lair. The soft ler in whose rough hut the operation was performed is the only one for miles around. He lives down there with his wife and two boys, the latter of whom are being educated by correspondence. They make weekly trips to Wentworth Falls to post their lessons and home exercises, and bring back provisions. Yet all along the banks of the creek at the foot of the valley is rich gardening country, but there is no outlet except by the rough track. They are still waiting for a road to be built which will give them access to profitable markets. As it is, they have to take their cattle by a circuitous route 60 miles' to Camden, itself some 30 miles from Sydney, while the valley is not more than 50 miles from Sydney as the crow flies.