MERCY FLIGHTS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 434, 15 May 1937, Page 7

MERCY FLIGHTS

WILDS OF CANADA Many Lives Saved Ottawa, May 3 Forty "mercy” flights have been carried out by the pilots of Canadian Airways during the last three mon hs. While climbing the cl ffs of Magdalen Islands, James. Young was grc.vely injured when his gun accidentally went off. Gangrene set in. and his death seemed a matter of hours. A iwireless message ,va. s picked up by a Canadian Airway., ’plane, which flew ,o Grindstone, where the inhabitants waved flags to show the pilot where he could make a safe landing. Here he picked up a doctor., took off again, and landed at Grand Entry 15 minutes la'er, a journey which norm, ally takes a day and a half by dog team. First aid was given to the injured man, who was then taken by fir across the Gulf of St. Lawrence : b the hospital at Charlottetown. The leg was amputated, and the victim is now on his way to recovery. Dash Through Storm. Walter Gilbert, flying north of Prince Albert, Sask., picked up a woman whose life was endangered by a severe haemmorrhage. He -took her to Prince Albert, where emergency stimulants and two blood transfusion! were made The woman has since recovered. The hospital authorities sta'ed that one hour’s delay would have cost the patient her life. Gray Farrell, the senior pilot of Canadian Airways, was flying south from the Arctic to be home’ for Christmas when he got an emergency call. He was held, up by a storm, and then flew on and picked up th? wife of the Anglican missionary at Ak’-rvik. He was forced down several times, but finally reached Coppermine by flying south 'o Fort Normm and Great Bear Lake and north to Coppermine. 200-Mile Flight. From Clova, Northern Quebec, a pilot took a man with a broken back 205 miles to hospital in Montreal. In the Kenora-Deer district a fcna.pper was picked up with a broken back, while another with a broken leg, foot and: arm was brought by ’plane from he Pickle-Souix-Lookout area. Pilot Molt, flying over Caribou Lake, saw flags being frantically waved. He landed on the lake and found a man with -a badly cut leg,* unable to walk. The pilot carried him to Collins and put him aboard a freight train for Armstrong, where there is a Red Cross hospital. A man was reported: seriously injured in the Resolution area, and an Indian in the same district was very ill. A ’pine picked them both up and took them to hospital. In most of these “mercy” cases the victims are poor trappers or poorer Indians, and the commercial 'planes sacrifice considerable revenue in going off their regular routes. There is no compensation for the pilots nor for the companies.