GALLANT MAN DIES, MARTYR TO X-RAYS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18546, 21 August 1928, Page 15

GALLANT MAN DIES, MARTYR TO X-RAYS.

DISEASE HE CURED IN OTHERS KILLED HIM. LONDON 7 , June 30. A hero was buried at Greenwich yesterday afternoon. He was a martyr of X-rays, and, although, twenty years ago, he realised that his calling.,, was slowly killing him, he went bravely on with his work. His name was Arthur A. Parsons, and for twenty 3 r ears he was radiographer at the Seamen’s Hospital, Greenwich. He was described at the inquest yesterday as a “martyr of science” and “one of the finest men in the country.” A verdict of “accidental death” was recorded.

Thousands of seamen received treatment from him for many kinds of illnesses—for fractures, broken legs and cancer. He died last Friday from cancer following continual handling of the X-ray apparatus.

When the funeral service was held in the little chapel of the Seamen’s Hospital yesterday, nurses,' doctors, wardmaids and patients alike came to pay a last tribute to the great man who had lived among them for twenty years. Little wardmaids wept lyRisk Not Realised. A great friend of the dead man, Mr A. J. Fisher, said to a “Daily Express” representative later:— “When Arthur Parsons first administered X-ray treatment he did not realise the risk he was running. That was twenty-five years ago. Fifteen years ago sores broke out on his fingers. They healed up and broke out again once more. Then Arthur understood what was happening. Science, too, was advancing and men were beginning to see the dangers attached to radiograph y. “Still he went on, for he believed in his , work, and he was one of the first operators in London. A blunt, straight man, i>f he differed in his opinion from any doctor about a patient who was under treatment, he told him so, and it was a remarkable thing that he was nearly always , right. “Then, in September, 1925, he had ; to have the ring-finger on the right hand removed. The. glands were taken away from the right arm-pit. Arthur knew that the same disease of which he had tried to cure so many others was coming to him.

“He took every possible precaution. In May of last year he complained of pains in the hip and the right, shoul-der-blade. He had to give up work altogether in November. Paralysis Set Up. “He had an attack this year which affected the spinal cord and set up paralysis. After that this man, who was so energetic that he had charge of special sections in five hospitals, was helpless, lying there waiting to be fed.

“Quite recently he spoke about the necessity for protecting radiographers aeainst the merciless X-rays. He was only fifty-three years of age, and leaves a widow.”