PORTABLE X-RAYS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 October 1938, Page 4

PORTABLE X-RAYS

NEW HOSPITAL SERVICE. DON BRADMAN BENEFITS. When Don Bradman met with his accident at the Oval he received the benefit of a new hospital service. A portable X-ray van rushed to his hotel and within an hour of his accident an electric cable <vas laid to his thirdfloor bedroom. X-ray photographs were taken as the Australian captain lay in bed and were rushed down to the van’s dark-room to be developed. A few minutes later doctors were holding the plates up to the light and were able to ascertain the exact extent of Don's injury. This is the latest scheme to spare pain and possible complications in the case of injuries when an X-ray examination is necessary before the doctors can get to work. In such cases it is often highly dangerous to move the patient. Portable X-ray vans were the invention of Mr J. C. Wilson, a retired rubber planter. He bought a second-hand car and fitted it up with a generator mounted above the engine and worked by a belt off the fan pulley. A drum, fitted behind the back axle, took enough cable to reach from the generator to a normal bedroom. The back of the car was enclosed to form a dark room for the developing and fixing of the X-ray plates. Mr- Wilson bought a portable X-ray apparatus that could be packed in the car in pieces and assembled within half-an-hour at the patient’s bedside. It proved so successful and was so much in demand that Mr Wilson soon formed a company with headquarters in West London. His London fleet now consists of seven vans, each accompanied by a skilled radiologist. A 24-hour service is maintained.