AN AIR AMBULANCE

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14766, 4 October 1921, Page 6

AN AIR AMBULANCE

DASH ACROSS CHAINNEL, BED IN THE CABIN. Taken seriously ill while attending the Supreme Council meeting in Paris, Major L. E. Ottley was brought to Croydon by aeroplane, and removed to London for an operation. Sir Douglas Shields, the eminent surgeon, flew over to Paris in the morning, and returned with his patient in a giant Hnndlcy Page machine, in which a bed had been fitted up. The machine which conveyed, the patient across the Channel arrived at Croydon shortly after 7 o'clock in the evening.

Sir Douglas Shields, on receipt of the urgent call, left Croydon Aerodrome at 6 o'clock in the morning, arriving in Paris at about half-past nine. Me at once visited the palient, and, after an examination, found he. was ■able to be taken to England. • Bed Insldo Cabin.

Accordingly, Major OI Hoy and Sir Douglas left in a powerful llandleyPri.gc machine at about i o'clock in the afternoon. The aeroplane was large enough to* allow of a bed being fi I'd up inside the cabin. The journey was performed in fair weather, and the 'plane reached Croydon al T.o p.m. A Daimler motor ambulance was waiting there, and Major Ottlcy having been transferred, was at once driven to Sir Douglas' private hospital in Park Lane, \V., where the pa#enl arrived at about 7..'iD.

Arrangements were immediately made for an operation. The size of the Handley-Pago air express in which surgeon and patient travelled enables a bed to be. erected inside the cabin so that a palient can travel from Paris to London in three hours with a minimum of discomfort. Mrs Bland, Major Ottlcy's sister, said lhat Hie aeroplane and Ihe surgeon were sent over by her father as soon as the critical nature of Hie illness was realised.