YOUNG MAN'S FORTITUDE

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 32, 6 February 1913, Page 3

YOUNG MAN'S FORTITUDE

GIVES SKIN TO SAVE MOTHER- \ IN-LAW.

SYDNEY, Jan. 29. j A story oi a young man's fortitude t in submitting, without undcrgoir.-o I chloroform, to the skin being removed j irom his arm for the purpose of i relieving his mother-in-law is being ' told in several of the.Sydney papers? "• The man i,s Archibald Leslie ! t e-rguson. who is 24 years of age. \ Two years ago he married. His i wife's mother has suffered from a » S:vin trouble on one-of her legs for! eight years. Many "certain cures" j and several doctors in turn had failed i to relieve her.. Or McPherson, of | AVaverloy, was; afforded an opportu- i mty of oxpreasing an opinion, and \ said ah once that nothing but the j grafting of human skin upon the I ■affected __ iimb would bring " about a 1 euro and prolong the sufferer's liie. : Ho added that.the skin to bo utilised \ must bo that of someone other than "i the patient. '

Mrs Ferguson took homo tiic news. \ Ferguson, on returning from work ■ and learning; the latest prescription, . naked": "Has she got anyone to do it ■ for her?"' '

The sad and hopeless negative was enough. Ferguson not only volunteered there and then, but insisted that his, and his only, must be tho sacrifice for his mother-in-law. Befciveen throe and four weeks ago he celebrated the New Year by baring his arm to the knife. From left shoulder io elbow the skin was stripped, and without delay it was transferred to the elderly sufferer's les. Chloroform was not used. Tho owration has proved successful, the lady already experiencing beneficial results.

As for Ferguson, with his wounded arm dressed and held in a .sling, ho. Ay as. amply rewarded when his mother-in-law, with a world of feeline;, said: "There is surely a golden, chair waiting for you in heaven, my deor!:'

Th<*' arm is not better yet. Ferprison drives a laundry cart, and the jolting of tho vohicle ovor tihe. rough roads of Bondi. where he lives, is not good for a sore limb. But this hero of pea«? never complains. "My arm? It will ?oon get better. What I did wasri't much." There ajx> not many, however, who would do the same.