HISTORY MADE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21788, 18 October 1940, Page 11

HISTORY MADE

RUNNING COMMENTARY FROM HOSPITAL Since the radio became a worldwide entertainment many and varied have been the features sent over the air, and quite recently we had a sensational commentary, describing an air battle over the English Channel, states a London paper. Our American friends were full of praise for it—but point to one of their own sensational broadcasts for comparison. It was a running commentary on an operation for appendicitis. Numb to the Waist It happened to a noted baseball player who was known far and wide in the United States, and it was suggested that people would be interested in his operation. Accordingly, when he was wheeled into the operating theatre there was a small microphone set up near by. Tire patient was then given a spinal anaesthetic, which numbed him to the waist, and a famous American doctor then gave a running commentary (behind a sound-proof screen), explaining how the surgeons went about their work. When the appendix was removed and the doctors were stitching the wound, the commentator went up to the patient and said: “Louis, you’re the first person in history to tell people what his operation was like before it is even over. Would you like to say hullo?” The patient smiled, and in a faint voice said: "Hullo, everybody! No pain at all. I want to thank the doctors and nurses for all they’ve done. They were wonderful!”