IRON LUNG DECLINED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 145, 15 March 1939, Page 10

IRON LUNG DECLINED

Not Much Use In Small Hospitals

x WHANGAREI DOCTOR’S VIEW Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, March 14. Whether the Whangarei Hospital Board should make application for an Iron lung in accordance with Lord Nuflield’s gift was debated at a meeting of the board on Monday. The board, on the recommendation of the medical superintendent, Dr. J. IV. Hall, decided not to make application, but to inform the Health Department that it considered that iron lungs should be based at the main hospitals, and these could be available to patients from the smaller hospitals. When the letter from the Health Department relative to the gift was read the chairman, Mr. J. A. S. Mackay, stated that the medical superintendent had expressed the opinion that an iron lung would not be of any use in the Whangarei Hospital. “I advise the board not to make application for an iron lung,” said Dr. Hall. “It would be of no real use to this hospital. Any case requiring such treatment should be under the care of a specialist. It would be better for such hospitals as Auckland to have two or three on band than for the smaller hospitals to be so equipped. In all the 17 years I have been superintendent there has been only one case where an iron lung could have been used. The appliance would just lie round and would soon deteriorate and be out of date.” .