A SURGICAL FEAT AT SEA.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13361, 27 April 1911, Page 2

A SURGICAL FEAT AT SEA.

During tho passage of the R.M.S. Otway from Melbourne to Adelaide prior to her departure for London on April 11, an operation was performed ou a lady passenger by a leading Melbourne Burgeon who happened to be on board, with tho assistance .of tho ship’s doctor, under most disadvantageous circumstances. This lady, who Js well known in Melbourne, had been complaining of pain in the region of the appendix for some time, but iiad not taken tho matter seriously, and she embarked for London thinking tho pain would soon eome to an end. The Otway left Melbourne in tlie afternoon, and before she had readied the Rip, or tho opening from the Bay to the ocean, tho sufferer suddenly became worse, and appeared to be in the most agonising pain. The ship’s doctor invited the surgeon to a consultation, and the result was a decision that it was a case of dangerous appendicitis, which required an almost immediate operation. The sea was in such a disturbed condition that it was impossible to attempt to send tho patient ashore in the pilot’s boat, as that officer had to be lowered into it by means of a rope. Tho sufferer gradually became worse, and at about midnight the two doctors decided that there was no alternative to an operation. The ship’s officer was not affected by seasickness but the surgeon was far from well. He was experiencing that awful sensation which overcomes the “poor sailor” soon after a voyage is started, and was feeling far from competent to do justice to tlie case, but with commendable pluck he pulled himself together for tho occasion. After the patient had been put under an anaesthetic, and when tlie ship was being tossed about by the rolling sea, the engines having been slowed down to facilitate the important task of the medical men, the operation was conducted. Twelve minutes after the first incision was made the appendix had been removed, the wound sewn up, and tho patient was in the hands or the ladies who served as nurses. Tho appendix w as found to be gangrenous, so that if the operation had not been performed the probability is the lady would have died before reaching the outer harbour. Happily she progressed remarkably well, and when she reached the outer harbour she w r as reported, to be free from pain and well on the road to recovery. Tlie operation was a fine surgical feat in viewof tlie conditions under which it was performed—by a doctor suffering from sea-sickness in a troubled sea with another man’s instruments.