INJURED WOMAN’S ORDEAL

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1932, Page 7

INJURED WOMAN’S ORDEAL

CHANCE DISCOVERY IN GULLY BLUE WITH COLD AND LEG BROKEN CAUSE OF PLIGHT NOT KNOWN. Auckland, June 7. Unable to move owing to a fracture of the right leg, Mrs. Edith Whitehead, aged 60, of Thames, who has been staying with her son, Mr. K. Whitehead, of Mount Albert, was found by relief workers in Grafton Gully, below the bridge, this afternoon. Mrs. Whitehead left her son’s home on Monday morning, and it is believed she spent the night in the open and that she had been in the gully since Monday morning. When found Mrs. Whitehead was in a pitiable condition. Two men discovered her at a turn in the path on the west side of the gully, near the foot of one of the piers. She was lying on the bank slightly above the path, with an opened umbrella supported in the crook of an arm.

The injured woman could only motion to the men, and they had to approach close to her to hear her hoarse whispers. She was numb and blue with the cold. Her whole body shivered, and she was saturated with rain. Speaking with great difficulty, she told the men she had fallen and broken her leg. “Do not touch it,” she said, as they turned their attention to the swollen limb, “get an ambulance for me.” In a pouring shower of rain Mrs. Whitehead was lifted on to a stretcher and four men laboured over slippery paths to bring her to the top of the gully. When asked questions at the hospital she could give only the most meagre details. She was Still in a dazed condition and it was a long time before she again had full possession of her senses. Mrs. Whitehead said she shouted repeatedly for help, but no assistance came and her voice failed. Mrs. Whitehead has been in iIL health for some time, and she was allowed only short walks during the day. When she left her son’s house she was going a few hundred yards to a- shopping centre. Her absence -was noticed early on Monday afternoon, and the police were notified. Her distracted family called at the homes of friends and relations, but no one had seen her during the day. “My mother was a stranger in Auckland,” said Mr. K. Whitehead. “Her only experience of tramcars was on one occasion when I placed her in a car to go to Mount Albert. Only loss of memory would explain her journey to the city.”