PAINFUL ORDEAL

Hokitika Guardian, 26 August 1933, Page 6

PAINFUL ORDEAL

YOUTH CRAWLS FOR ONE MILE. BROKEN LEG IN BARK SPLINTS. BRISBANE, August 18. “It-would have been easier if’l had not been out. of cigarettes’’-rthis was the only complaint made by Edward Jackson,* an IS-year-old youtli, when lie was admitted ■to the hospital at S.t. •George, Queensland, hut behind his brief comment lies a story of remarkable endurance and of a determined' effort-to alleviate his excruciating pam. The youth endured the sufferings of; a crawi of more than a mile through rugged country, with his broken leg in splints of bark; a night ,with only the meagre warmth of a burning stump to shield him from the hitter cold; and practically 24 hours without food ’or water. Next day he had forgotten his own suffering, and could find only praise for the bush nurse who travelled lb miles to vender him first-aid. , Jackson, who resides on his parents property at Mourilyan, 10 miles from Bolion, left the homestead shortly after lunch to round up horses. He had gone about six miles and was in heavily timbered country about 2 p.m., when his horse fell and threw him. As the animal struggled to regain its leet R kicked the youth, breaking his right leg midway between the knee and tho ankle. For a time he lay stunned, but, his .’strength gradually returning, lie cast about for means of alleviating the pain. The solution lay in the quantity of dry hark which had fallen away from a dead tree about 200 yards distant.

To the youth the journey seemed ifitermiuable, as,- dragging hi s injured limb behind him, he crawled toward the spot. There lie was forced to rest for some time before he could, with Ills bare hands, tear the bark into strips suitable for splints.

Using strips of cloth from - the log* of his trousers as bandages, Jackson contrived to bind the hark to his log, and then, guided by the setting sun, he set out to crawl more than a mile to a. bore drain which ran, through the homestead property. He knew that, it a search for him were organised, the party would follow the line of the drain, and that, if. die could reach it, he would* be safe.

Hampered by the improvised splints, and fearing. that at any moment the bark might splinter and tear the wound in his. leg, the youth’s progress was slow, and the journey wa s lengthened by the frequent necessity of a halt to gain fresh energy. Darkness came on before’ the long journey was over,' and, fearing that ho might fall into the drain if ho com tinued, Jackson had no alternative hut to camp for the night beside the hollow stump of a.fallen gum tree. Though he had no cigarettes to console himself with, he had matches, and, scraping together a heap of dry gras s he lit afire in the stump. Then commenced a, weary, foodless vigil, with pain ban-ishing-all possibility of sleep; the husbanding of matches and grass, too, was a matter of constant anxiety.

After, a night spent huddled beside the stump Jackson continued at daybreak to .c-rawl toward the bore drain. He found that he had been only 200 yards from his objective when darkness overtook him. In the meantime hisfailure to return on the previous evening had alarmed the homestead. A preliminary search was made without success during the night; but at 9 o’clock in the morning his brother iound him lying, exhausted, beside the bore drain, about five miles from the house. Seeing that ,he could do little to improve the setting 0 f the bark splints, the brother set out on horseback for Bollon. There lie located a relieving bush-nursing sister, and, hiring a motor car, returned toward hi s .home. After a 10-mile drive along the road /the nurse had to walk six miles through timbered country, and it was 2 p.m. when- she reached the injured youth—--24 hours after his leg had been broken.With the assistance of other residents Jackson’s brother improvised a stretcher from saplings and bags, and on this the injured, youth, his leg now swathed in bandages, was carried to the road. There he was met by ambulance bearers, who had been summoned from Bollon, and he was taken to the hospital. His condition that night >vas stated to be comfortable.