“HAVE PERFORMED MIRACLES”

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23962, 1 June 1943, Page 5

“HAVE PERFORMED MIRACLES”

AUSTRALIAN SURGEONS IN MIDDLE EAST From Our Own Correspondent SYDNEY, May 19. “Australian surgeons in the Middle East have performed miracles in saving lives,’’ said Mr S. R. Selleck, Red Cross Deputy-Commissioner, who has returned to Australia. During the Alamein battle, he said, an underground operating theatre worked within four and a half miles of the front line. Three operating tables were in constant use, and prompt surgical attention and blood transfusions saved many lives. The Red Cross supplied the kerosene refrigerators necessary to preserve the blood plasma. A mobile surgical team, formed through the initiative of Australian doctors, also did magnificent work. The Red Cross had spent £7OO on tulle netting to enable a new treatment for burns to be continued, Mr Selleck said. The treatment was first used in the Syrian campaign, but for some time was not officially recognised. Badly burnt men. treated in this manner, recovered without a blemish being left on their skins. Australian Red Cross supplies arrived at Malta at one of the most critical periods of the island’s siege, said Mr Selleck, who spent 10 days there.