SHEPHERD'S ORDEAL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 48, 19 November 1937, Page 4

SHEPHERD'S ORDEAL

- BFifteen Hours' Wait For Medical Aid muster1ng a0cident When the horse h.e was riding slipped and f ell on a steep hillside, Mr Eric Turner, a shepherd who .was mustering on Hawkston station, Patoka, was unable to get clear and broke his leg just above the ankle. The accident occnrred at about 5 o'clock yesterday morning^ but it was not until 1 p.m. tho.t the injured man was found by another of the musterers, Mr Wilson, who rode back to the homestead wnere ho arrived at about 2.30 p.m. and telephoned Napier for an ambulance. Enlisting the help of five other nien, Mr Wilson made his way back to where he had left Mr Turner as comfortabie as the materials at his command had permitted. Improvising a'stretcher from poles and sacks, the party set outA cutting a track through the dense serub, on their way to the homestead. Taking the stretchor from the Ambulance with them, the driver and his assistant set out to meet the rescue party and came upon them at about 6.15 p.m. a mile and a-half away from the house. The injured man wa« transferred to the more comfortabie stretcher and the ambulance started on the 35mile joumey to the Napier Hospital at about 8.15 p.m. — about five hours after Mr Turner had been picked up by Mr Wilson 'a stretcher party > and. over 15 hours after his fail. At 10 o'clock, the shepherd 's long ordeal was over and he was comfortably in bed in .hospital with an injury that, while not very seriouQ, will lay him up for some time.