AID BY 'PLANE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 178, 14 August 1937, Page 3

AID BY 'PLANE

— Press Association.),

Instruments Rushed to Save Child's Life PEANUT IN LUNG

(By ' Telesraph-

.AUCKLAND, Last Night. • Special surgical instruments wero rushed frbm New Plym'outh to Auckland by aeroplane to-day to be used in removing a peanut from the lung of a .child which had been hurried to tke city by moto'r-car from Whangarei. The operation was carried out successfully at .the Mater Misericordiae Hospital- by a member of the hospital 's hoaorary staff. Only a few days previously the samc instruments had been sent to New 1 lymouth by aeroplane for use in a similar operation there. At 7 o'clock to-day an Auckland doctor 'who owns the instruments, was advised that he wpuld be required to attend the child from .Whangarei, a boy aged 2 years and 9 months. Immediately he put through an urgent call to the, borrower, instructing him to place ; the . instruments on . the northbound Union Airways monoplane as air toail. The child arrived at the hospital at about 11 a.m. and an X-ray examination revealed that the peanut was blocking the lower part of the left lung. Nothing could be done, however, untii the arrival of the instruments, the chief of, which was a bronchoscope. The aeroplane reached Mangere at 3 p.rn., and shortly afterwards the instruments were being hurried to the hospital. The operation was performed at about 4 p.m. and occupied one minute. It was entirely suecessful and soon afterwards the child enjoyed a'meal.