INJURED MAN'S ORDEAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 673, 27 May 1929, Page 16

INJURED MAN'S ORDEAL

ON STRETCHER THROUGH THE BUSH DASH TO HOSPITAL Severely gashed on a foot while felling timber, John F. Lopes was carried on a roughly-formed stretcher by lantern light over three miles of bush track, and was in a launch for four hours before he received proper medical treatment at Auckland. Mr. Lopes was working in the bush three miles from Port Fitzroy, Great Barrier Island, when the accident took place, and the journey in the darkness was hazardous. A woman resident at Port Fitzio?/ attended the injured man, who is 33 years of age and married, and put two stitches in the wound. These certainly saved the patient from considerable loss of blood. There is no doctor on Great Barrier, and Constable N. Warren, on the island, hearing of the accident, quickly prepared his launch for a night dash from Port Fitzroy. With two companions, Mr. Lopes was cutting timber on contract. His axe slipped, cut through a boot, and gashed the instep for four inches. One of Mr Lopes’s companions went for help and the other bandaged the wound with his singlet. A party from Port Fitzroy arrived to take the injured man, who was weak from loss of blood, to the settlement on a wooden stretcher. PATHWAY HAC.KED In lantern light, a path had often to be hacked through scrub and undergrowth. The bearers worked feverishly with axes. Port Fitzroy was reached at 9 p.m. With the wound newly bandaged, Mr. Lopes was placed in the launch. Fortunately the weather was calm for the run to Auckland. On arrival at four o’clock yesterday morning a St. John ambulance took him to the Auckland Hospital. Today a report from the hospital said that he was comfortable. The country over which the injured man -was borne is extremely hilly and, even in daytime, travelling is strenuous. The trip in the dark was accomplished in rapid time, and only the tireless work of the bearers saved Mr. Lopes from long hours of pain. As it was 11 hours passed before he was able to receive expert attention.