BOY’S LIFE AT STAKE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20065, 11 October 1939, Page 3

BOY’S LIFE AT STAKE

THIRTY HOURS AT GUY’S HOUSE SURGEON’S FIGHT , LONDON, Aug. 3. In the Medical Register for 1939 the writer looked last night for the name of Dr. Sydney Green, house surgeon at Guy’s Hospital, London. His name was given as Green, Sydney Isaac, his address—Bs, Edgwarebury lane, Edgware, Middlesex. His dale and place of registration: 1938, February 2, E. (England); jhis qualifications: M.R.C.S., Eng.,' 1938: L.R.C.P. Lend., 1938. M.R.C.S. means member of the Royal College of Surgeons; L.R.C.P. means Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. Hundreds and hundreds of doctors appear like that in tabulated columns —but the writer wanted to know about Dr. Sydney Green for a special reason. At 4.40 p.m. on Monday last week a fiftebn-year-old messenger boy, William Wiltshire, of Stephenson House, Tarn street, Southwark, was admitted to Guy's Hospital. He had fallen from his bicycle under a lorry. Dr. Sydney Green examined him. At 6.40 p.m. on Monday last week the boy was taken to the operating theatre. And later he was taken to Dr. Green’s ward. Would Not fraud Over Case In his ward Dr. Green was already looking after five accident cases and 15 other cases. He had been up late on duty for three or four nights; all that day he had been working. He attended the messenger boy, decided he must have a blood transfusion. The boy's sister and brother gave transfusions within a few hours. At dawn last Tuesday Dr. Green was still trying to save the boy’s life. He superintended three more transfusions. He would not hand over his job to the staff who helped him. At 8.30 p.m. last Tuesday the messenger boy died. At 9 p.m, last Tuesday Dr. Green went to bed. And at the inquest on the messenger boy yesterday the South London coroner, Mr. Cowburn, said: ’’Dr. Green went to bed in a state of complete exhaustion.'’ Dr. Green had tried for nearly 30 hours without a break to save the boy’s life. He gave evidence, and afterwards the coroner said:— “His was a work of unremitting labour of a very exhausting character, and he would not have said a word if I had not dragged it out of him. “It is a simple, plain unvarnished story of humanity, a signal example of the self-sacrificing life that doctors lead.” At Guy's Hospital last night the writer was told: “This sort of thing often happens here. It is part ol't the day's work.”