Dramatic Dash To Save Patient's Life

Chronicle (Levin), 3 May 1948, Page 5

Dramatic Dash To Save Patient's Life

GISBORNE, Alay 1. A dramatic dash by road from Gis* borne to Wairoa in the early hours of this inoniing with an essential part for .ih iron tUng saved the life of an infantile paralysis patient in the Wairoa Hospital. ' A vvonian from the Putere area, who is criticallv affected with the disease, was in an iron lung when a mechanicaJ defect occurred last night. Her life was placed in jeopanbv 1 > y the failure of the breathing ap; aratus to function correctly, and while desperate elnergency measures were employed by the 1 hospital staff to keep the patient j alive, a call was pnt through to ! the Gisborne Hospital. A taxi left Gisborne at 2 a.m. with tlie equipment ' and_ was met half-wav by a taxi from Wairoa, which sped *to the Wairoa Hospital. It was stated this morning that the patient's condition had deteriorated alarmingly while the iron lung was in only pawt working order, but seenied to l)e recovering now it was operating noi'mally, While the apparatus from Gisborne was awaited Wairoa doctors lashioned a bladder from motor car inner tubes, This saved the patient's life. A warning.was given by the Wairoa Hospital authorities today that what liad happened to the iron ■ long was likely to happen to any other lung in the Dominion as they are all about the same age. The defect wTas caused by the failure of the rubber bellows to operate.